Palm Beach Show 2011

TK ASIAN ANTIQUITIES 169 1654 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185 tel: 757.253.0769 41 East 57th Street, Suite 1125, New York, NY 10022 tel: 212.644.1103 email: tkoriental@widomaker.com internet: www.tkasianantiquities.com Date: 5th–3rd Century BCE Medium: Gold Size: 5⅜" High, 315⁄16" Diameter Exceptionally high relief decoration brings to life the five figures arranged on this hammered gold tapered cup. Cups of similar shape were found at Marlik (Northern Iran). The bodies are worked into the vessel wall by repoussé, while the heads are made from separate worked sheets of gold, carefully soldered into openings of the cup. The immense cultural exchange, of both physical goods and artistic styles, which occurred throughout much of Central Asia and Northwestern China can make it difficult to identify the culture which crafted an artifact. Preliminary research on this cup suggests that the one seated figure may represent the goddess Hera, depicted under similar circumstances on a rhyton from the Thracian treasure at Panagyurishte, dated to the turn of the 4th–3rd century BCE. Hera is pulling a flowing veil away from the sides of her head, in the same manner as depicted here.