An interesting late 18^th / early 19^th century silver gilt collection dish, The Levant circa 1800

Judaica, of dished oval form with an applied side handle of shaped outline, with chased decoration of pairs of griffins, the out two holding swords, all centred by a pierced hole. The bowl section with fluted base, chased to the exterior with stylised palmettes between herringbone bands. The reverse of handle with engraved foliate scrolls, the reverse of the bowl with an engraved inscription in Phoenician characters. Marked only to the reverse of handle with the French second standard gold mark (750/1000) for Paris 1798-1809 by Ami Gros (reg. 1798/99, biff. 1822).

Length – 17.4 cm / 6.9 inches

Weight – 177 grams / 5.69 ozt

Ami Gross registered as a watch maker at 24 Place Thionville.

This dish is believed to be a collection plate for use in the Jewish faith or possibly for use in handwashing. A essentially identical example in gilt copper attributed the Balkans region in the 18^th century was offered Bonhams New Bond Street, 5 April 2011, Lot 153, where it is discussed that “[t]he shape of this dish bears is related to the drinking cup or "belt bowl" which has its origins in Eastern Asia, spreading West from the Ural river during the Mongol expansion in the early 13th century.”

The French import marks help date the piece to the 18^th or very early 19^th century at the latest, clearly an error was performed at assay or that a heavily gilded dish was tested as if gold. The Jewish surname Gross or Groß, in Germany, is of German, Prussian, and Yiddish origin and it is likely that this silversmith/watchmaker imported this item to France for his own or congregations’ use, as this does not align with his profession. Further examples and research would be needed to establish if these dishes hail from a specific region over The Levant such as Ottoman Greece or Syria.

AUCTION POSTSCRIPT

It has since been discovered that this dish is in fact an exact replica of a 7^th to 10^th century gold vessel found in Bulgaria as part of a hoard of 23 items known as The Golden Treasure of Nad Saint-Miklos. The treasure was found by Bulgarians Christoph and Kiril Nako on the 3^rd of July 1799 and then handed over to the Emperor of Austria-Hungary Joseph II. Scientific and cultural analysis of the treasure has many hypotheses on the items, be they of; Bactrian, Sassanian, Iranian-of the Huns, Turanian, North Pontian, Byzantine, West Huns, Avarian, Avaro-Bulgarian origin. The vessels with inscriptions use three different languages Greek, proto-Bulgarian using Greek characters and runic proto-Bulgarian. It is believed that the hoard in part belonged to Khan Asparuh who founded the Bulgarian state in 681 AD, but also Khan Kubrat (r. 632-650/65) and later elements to Khan Omurtag (r. 814-831), subsequently owned by Tsar Simeon I The Great of Bulgaria (R. 893-927) and buried sometime after 971 from the siege and seizure of the capital of Great Preslav by the Byzantine army.

The inscription on the back of this vessel is in fact in Runic Proto-Bulgarian, this copy which given the French assay marks must have been made within ten years of the initial discovery may therefore be an Austrian facsimile.