Said to be found in Mazanderan, Iran (A. Pope, "Ancient Persian Art: Animal sculpture in gold and electron", ILN, March 2, 1935, p. I, lower figure); probably between 1930 and 1935, acquired by Thomas Lavington Jacks, Tehran; 1938, purchased by Joseph Brummer from Thomas Lavington Jacks, London (Brummer inv. no. P15011); 1947, acquired by the Museum, purchased from the estate of Joseph Brummer, New York.
"Third Exhibition on Persian Art," State Hermitage, St Petersburg, 1935.
"Six Thousand Years of Persian Art," American Institute of Iranian Art and Archaeology, New York, April 24–July 1, 1940.
"Origin and Influence, Cultural Contacts: Egypt, the Ancient Near East, and the Classical World," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 18, 1970–April 23, 1971.
“The Grand Gallery,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 19, 1974–January 5, 1975.
“Ancient Persia: the Art of an Empire.” The University Museum, Austin, Texas, The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, February 12, 1978–June 17, 1978.
“The Golden Deer of Eurasia,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2000–2001.
Pope, A. 1935." Ancient Persian Art: Animal sculpture in Gold and Electron", Illustrated London News, March 2, 1935, p. I, lower figure.
Pope, A. 1938. A Survey of Persian Art, vol. IV. London, New York: Oxford University Press, pl. 110.
Ackerman, Phyllis. 1940. Guide to the exhibition of Persian art. New York: The Iranian Institute, p. 322, no. 38.
Wilkinson, Charles K. 1949. "The Art of the Ancient Near East." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 7, p. 196.
Svoboda, B. and Concev, Dimiter. 1956. Neue Denkmäler Antiker Toreutik. Nakladatelstvi Ceskoslovenske Akademie Ved, Praha, p. 36, fig. 9.
Hoffman, Herbert. 1961."The Persian Origin of Attic Rhyta," Antike Kunst 4 (1), p. 22, n. 18.
Tuchelt, K. 1962, Tiergefässe in Kopf-und Protomengestalt: Untersuchungen zur Formengeschichte Tierförmiger Giessgefässe. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, p. 59, no. 13.
Forsyth, William H. 1974. "Acquisitions from the Brummer Gallery." In The Grand Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 3.
Muscarella, Oscar W. 1977. “Unexcavated Objects and Ancient Near Eastern Art.” In Mountains and Lowlands: Essays in the Archaeology of Greater Mesopotamia, edited by Louis D. Levine and T.C. Young, Bibliotheca Mesopotamia 7, p. 30, fig. 6.
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. 1978. Ancient Persia: The Art of an Empire, exh. cat. Austin, Texas: The University Art Museum, p. 81, no. 101.
Calmeyer, Peter. 1979. "Zum Tongefäß in Form eines Gazellenkopfes." In Bastam I: Ausgrabungen in den Urartäischen Anlagen 1972-1975, edited by Wolfram Kleiss. Teheraner Forschungen 4. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, p. 199, no. G3.
Harper, Prudence O. et al. 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Selections from the Collection of the Ancient Near East Department, exh. cat. Tokyo: Chunichi Shimbun, fig. 5.
Harper, Prudence O. et al. 1984. "Ancient Near Eastern Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (4), Spring 1984, p. 15, fig. 12.
Moorey, P. R. S. 1985. "The Iranian Contribution to Achaemenid Material Culture." Iran 23, pp. 24, 26.
Moorey. P. R. S. 1988. “Gold-Figure Decoration on Achaemenid Silver Vessels.” Iranica Antiqua 23, p. 233, pl. Ib.
Aruz, Joan, Ann Farkas, Andrei Alekseev, and Elena Korolkova, eds. 2000. The Golden Deer of Eurasia: Scythian and Sarmatian Treasures from the Russian Steppes, exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 244, fig. 86.
Manassero, Nicolò. 2008. Rhyta e corni potori dall’Età del Ferro all’epoca sasanide: libagioni pure e misticismo tra la Grecia e il mondo iranico. BAR International Series 1750. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., pp. 51, 82, no. 3.3.
Simpson, St J., M.R. Cowell, and S. La Niece. 2010. "Achaemenid Silver, T.L. Jacks and the Mazanderan Connection." In The World of Achaemenid Persia, Proceedings of a conference at the British Museum, 29th September-1st October 2005, edited by John Curtis and St John Simpson. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, p. 434.
Almagor, Eran. 2021. "The Horse and the Lion in Achaemenid Persia: Representations of a Duality." Arts 10.3, p. 10, fig. 6.
Dunn-Vaturi, Anne and Martina Rugiadi. 2023. "The Brummer Gallery and the Making of Iranian and Islamic Arts." In The Brummer Galleries, Paris and New York: Defining Taste from Antiquities to the Avant-Garde, edited by Christine Brennan, Christel Hollevoet-Force, and Yaëlle Biro. Boston: Brill, p. 417, n. 19 and Table 10.1, no. 42.
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Includes more than 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the time of the Arab conquests of the seventh century A.D.