boss

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Object Type
Museum number: 134358
Description: Silver gilt boss with a lion's head; this object was fastened by means of four equally spaced rivets through the rim but its original function remains uncertain; parts of hair, cheeks and upper lip mercury gilded; 4 rivet holes in the rim, one still containing round-headed rivet.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 4thC (possibly)
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Iran
Materials: silver; gold
Technique: gilded (mercury); riveted
Dimensions: Diameter: 0.80 centimetres (rivet head); Diameter: 0.50 centimetres (rivet holes); Diameter: 16 centimetres; Height: 7 centimetres; Length: 2.30 centimetres (of rivet, including head); Weight: 5.94 grammes; Thickness: 0.20 centimetres (at the rim)
Curator's comments: This object was examined by Dr Simon James in early 1990s who concluded that its earlier identification as a possible shield boss was dubious. Previously, Dr David Nicolle suggested that it may have been used by an elite cavalryman or senior officer, and drew attention to the silverwares known as the so-called "David Plates" which are believed to have been made to celebrate Heraclius' victory over the Sasanians and which depict the Sasanian "Goliath" carrying a shield decorated with a lion head boss. XRF analysis of the silver composition published by Hughes & Hall (1979) gives a heavily debased result more characteristic of the hard solder than most typical Sasanian silver. A related but iconographically slightly different gilt-silver lion-head boss or phalera was loaned by one Mr Christos Bastis to an exhibition on "Sasanian Silver: Late Antique and Early Mediaeval Arts of Luxury From Iran" at The University of Michigan Museum of Art, August-September 1967 (p.129, no. 46). Other related examples of unknown provenance and uncertain date have passed through the London art market (Bonhams: 'Antiquities', Thursday 1 May 2008, London, p.91, lot 171; Bonhams: 'Antiquities', Wednesday 1 May 2013, p. 124, lot 185).
Bibliographic references: Seipel W 1996a / Weihrauch und Seide: Alte Kulturen an der Seidenstrasse. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, 21 January - 14 April 1996 (pp.242, 403, cat. 92) (cat. entry by St J. Simpson); Nicolle D & McBride A 1996a / Sassanian armies : the Iranian empire early 3rd to mid-7th centuries AD (p.67, fig.35C) (sketch); Hughes M J & Hall J A 1979a / X-ray Fluorescence Analyses of Late Roman and Sassanian Silver Plate (pp.328, 330, table 1); Lins & Oddy 1975a / The origins of mercury gilding (mercury gilding confirmed); Farrokh K 2005a / Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-642 (p.22) (referred to as Shir-Eiran ("Lion of Persia"))
Location: On display (G52/dc7)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 1996 17 Jan-14 Apr, Austria, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches museum, 'Weihrauch und Seide – geld und Luxus aus dem Antiken Orient' 1995-2005 17 Nov-Aug, BM, G52/IRAN/22/10 1994 16 Jun-23 Dec, BM, G49/IRAN/22/13 1993 12 Feb-25 Apr, Belgium, Brussels, Musée Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, 'Splendeur des Sassanides / Hofkunst Van des Sassanieden', no.45 Iranian Room [IR], case 20, no. 5, Jul 1975-ca 1990.
Subjects
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1963
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 134358
Registration number: 1963,1220.1
Conservation

Free entry

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