A long, rectangular shallow tray with incised palmettes to the angles, arcaded band to the inner face of the flanged border, narrow parcel-gilt band to the outer face of upstand; separate cast sphinx with lion-paw foot to each corner.

PROVENANCE:
From an important North London collection formed before 1980.

LITERATURE:
See Sear, David R., volume 2, number 4598, for an example of the Chios tetradrachm and the form of the sphinx.

FOOTNOTES:
Trays of this character were used to serve fruit and other foodstuffs at formal banquets or for offerings. The sphinx was associated with and was the symbol of the island of Chios in the eastern Meditierranean and appears on numerous coins of that island from the 4th century BC onwards; the hooked form of wings and the rolled hairstyle as seen on the feet of this tray are strikingly similar to the depictions of the sphinx on silver tetradrachms of Chios from around 200 BC.