Circa 600 BC. With masterfully decorated gold griffin protome with long sinuous neck and eagle head with incised scales, the gaping beak with projecting pointed tongue, bulging eyes with raised eyelines, long pointed ears and a central knopped finial on the crown of the head. Along this breath-takingly beautiful protome is decorated square appliques, situated on the forehead of the hat and on the back panel, each with four suspension holes in the corner, each applique has an internal boarder with central large circular granule surrounded by smaller granules. Alongside these square appliques are circular disc-shaped appliques with centralised sun-like decoration, with two holes for suspension. These also move horizontally to the top of the hat, one conjoining panel from one side to the other and on the reverse down to the neck panel. The griffin was a hybrid mythological animal with a body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle. It is the creature that projects strength in its duality. The “gold guarding” griffins were associated with gold deposits In the Black Sea region. Pliny, the Elder wrote “Griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the ground and these nests contained gold nuggets.” For similar see Sotheby’s, lot 25, 8th December 2015. For similar examples of griffins see: David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Mainz on Rhine, 1967, catalogue of the exhibition at The Fogg Art Museum, the City Art Museum of Saint Louis, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 4th, 1967-June 30th, 1968, no. 65, illus. Hans Volkmar Herrmann, Die Kessel der orientalisierenden Zeit. Zweiter Teil. Kesselprotomen und Stabdreifüsse (Olympische Forschungen, XII), Berlin, 1979, p. 105 and note 23 Dietrich von Bothmer, Jane M.Cody, Jiri Frel, Arthur Houghton, Catharine Custus Lorber, and Margaret Ellen Mayo, Wealth of the Ancient World, The Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt Collections, Fort Worth, 1983, catalogue of the exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the High Museum, Atlanta, June 25th, 1983-February 9th, 1986 Ulrich Gehrig, Die Greifenprotomen aus dem Heraion von Samos (Samos 9), Bonn, 2004, p. 40, and note 161. Size: L:480mm / W:260mm ; 200g. Provenance: From the private collection; acquired in English art market from D. A.; previously in Austrian private collection since 1963.