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Lot Essay
Finely engraved on the interior is the Sasanian King Narseh on horseback, lassoing two onagers. He wears a diadem with long billowing ties and a fluted crown surmounted by a globe, the join tied with a fluttering ribbon. Over his trousers and tunic he wears a haltar, its central medallion tied with long steamers. A quiver ornamented with a vine motif is suspended from his belt. With the horse in full gallop, he holds a coil of rope in his right hand, which extends across his body and is held taut in his left hand, with the loop secure around the necks of the onagers. On the underside of the foot, a late Sasanian punched inscription names the plate's owner and weight: "Kapchin that is (?) 33 (staters) and 3 drachmae."
While the style of this plate suggests a 5th-6th century date, the form of the crown indicates that an earlier king is the subject. Based on the form of the crown, there can be no doubt that Narseh (reigned 293-303 A.D.) is depicted, since each successive Sasanian king wears a unique crown. The same crown is seen on a rock-cut relief at Naqsh-i-Rustam depicting Narseh's investiture and on his coins (see pls. 157B and 251K in A.U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art).
For other plates depicting a royal figure lassoing an animal, see the example with bears in the Abkhazian State Museum and another in the Hermitage with a single onager (P.O. Harper and P. Meyers, Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period, Volume One: Royal Imagery, pls. 9 and 29). The onager or wild Persian ass was the fastest animal in the deserts of Central Asia, and were difficult to catch even for an experienced rider. The Sasanian king Bahram V (420-438 A.D.) died while hunting them (T. Daryaee, "Sasanian Persia (ca. 224-651 C.E.)," in Iranian Studies, vol. 31, p. 439).
This plate was part of an exceptional group of Sasanian silver works of art collected by Ayoub Rabenou in the 1960s that are now part of the permanent collections of many leading international museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Louvre and the Abegg-Stiftung.
While the style of this plate suggests a 5th-6th century date, the form of the crown indicates that an earlier king is the subject. Based on the form of the crown, there can be no doubt that Narseh (reigned 293-303 A.D.) is depicted, since each successive Sasanian king wears a unique crown. The same crown is seen on a rock-cut relief at Naqsh-i-Rustam depicting Narseh's investiture and on his coins (see pls. 157B and 251K in A.U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art).
For other plates depicting a royal figure lassoing an animal, see the example with bears in the Abkhazian State Museum and another in the Hermitage with a single onager (P.O. Harper and P. Meyers, Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period, Volume One: Royal Imagery, pls. 9 and 29). The onager or wild Persian ass was the fastest animal in the deserts of Central Asia, and were difficult to catch even for an experienced rider. The Sasanian king Bahram V (420-438 A.D.) died while hunting them (T. Daryaee, "Sasanian Persia (ca. 224-651 C.E.)," in Iranian Studies, vol. 31, p. 439).
This plate was part of an exceptional group of Sasanian silver works of art collected by Ayoub Rabenou in the 1960s that are now part of the permanent collections of many leading international museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Louvre and the Abegg-Stiftung.