An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay

An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay
Ptolemaic Period, circa 332-30 B.C.
The beast depicted with right forepaw raised, tongue extended, with elaborate feathered wings, wearing a thick collar, details in opaque yellow, red, turquoise, dark blue and white in a translucent cobalt blue matrix, 1.6cm high, 1.9cm long

Provenance:
The Groppi Collection, Switzerland; acquired in the 1920s-1940s.
The Groppi Collection; Christie's, London, 26 April 2012, lot 105.

Exhibited:
Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, 2008-9 (cat. p. 73, no. 22).

Published:
Treasures from the Al Thani Collection, Beijing, 2018, vol. II, no. 19, p. 72-3.

Griffins are mythical creatures that typically combine the head and wings of an eagle with the body of a lion; this example, however, combines the forepart of a lion with the wings and tail of an eagle. Thought to have originated in the Near East and Egypt simultaneously around the 4th Century B.C., images of the griffin spread across the Mediterranean and into Western Asia, and conveyed ideas of power and divine majesty.

For other examples see the Corning Museum, Corning, New York, acc. no. 59.1.99 (formerly in the Ray Winfield Smith collection), and E. M. Stern and B. Schlick-Nolte, Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.-A.D. 50, Ernesto Wolf Collection, Ostfildern, 1994, no. 137. The Wolf example is symmetrical with another identical plaque facing it, suggesting that the above lot likely also originally formed part of a pair.