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.

The front of this brooch shows a human-headed winged lion based on the colossal lamassu gateway guardian figures found in the Assyrian palaces. These and similar winged bull figures, based on the colossal guardian sculptures found flanking important gateways in the palaces, became the modern icons of the Assyrian excavations and were the motif most commonly used in Assyrian revival jewelry and decorative arts. The reverse has a compartment holding a miniature portrait of a woman; the sitter’s identity is unknown.