Brooch with Assyrian human-headed winged lion

Following the excavation of Assyrian palaces in the mid-nineteenth century, ancient Mesopotamian imagery began to be used in European decorative arts, including jewelry and ceramics. Publicity in the form of news coverage and popular books around the excavations, removal of many sculptures from sites in northern Iraq to England and France, and public spectacles such as the reconstructed ‘Nineveh Court’ in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, London, fostered a fascination with Assyria and Assyrian art among the Victorian public.

This brooch is part of a demi-parure with earrings (2023.686a, b). The brooch and one earring feature a human-headed winged lion based on the famous lamassu gateway guardian figures found in the Assyrian palaces, while the other earring shows a less common protective figure with the legs and body of a lion and a human upper body and head, identified in texts as urmaḫlullû, as well as a plant motif, all inlaid with colorful enamel. The back of the brooch features a glass compartment for storing a picture or other keepsake.