Formerly Dr Rudolph Schmidt (1900-1970) Collection; Swiss private collection by descent (Lots 5-8)
Lot 5*
A Babylonian agate "eye-stone" bead, inscribed for Nebuchadnezzar II
4 December 2025, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£6,000 - £8,000
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A Babylonian agate "eye-stone" bead, inscribed for Nebuchadnezzar II
Circa 604-562 B.C.
3.4cm diam, 9mm max depth
3.4cm diam, 9mm max depth
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Eli Borowski.
Dr Rudolph Schmidt (1900-1970) Collection, Solothurn, Switzerland, acquired from the above, 26 August 1948.
Swiss private collection, by descent.
Published:
Edmond Sollberger as no. 3 on pp. 239-240 in "Inscriptions votives Babyloniennes conservees dans des collections suisses" in Genava n.s. 2 (1954), pp. 237-244, where it is identified as from the Schmidt Collection.
P.-R. Berger, Die neubabylonischen Königsinschriften: Königsinschriften des ausgehenden babylonischen Reiches (626–539 a. Chr.) (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 4/1), Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1973, where it is catalogued as Nebukadnezar Augensteine Md la/ 3.
R. Da Riva, The Neo-Babylonian Royal Inscriptions (Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Records 4). Münster, 2008, where it is listed as ES1 no. 3.
The inscription translates: "For Marduk, his lord, Nebuchadnezzar (II), King of Babylon, has given for (the preservation of) his life."
There are two other identical votive inscriptions on eye-stones for Nebuchadnezzar II to Marduk. This votive inscription is identified as Nebuchadnezzar ES1 no. 3. See the website for Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty as Nebuchadnezzar 73a. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon7/Q005544
For another example of an agate eye-stone bead, with an inscription for Nebuchadnezzar II around the eye of the stone, see The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, obj. no. MLC 2624.