WEST CENTRAL ASIAN SHINY BLACK STONE STAMP CYLINDER SEAL WITH PRANCING QUADRUPEDS, WITH ORIGINAL REP Ca. 1800 - 1400 BC. A stamp cylinder seal of shiny black stone. The base depicts a standing horned animal with an object over its back. Each side is decorated with a frieze of four prancing quadrupeds, arranged in two pairs: one above the other. The upper pair is horned, and the lower apparently not. The upper and lower registers are filled with stylised vegetal motifs. The piece is pierced through the rounded top for suspension. This is an extremely rare type of seal from Baluchistan or West Central Asia, with a style known from a limited number of other examples. The scene of running animals finds a parallel in a silver vase from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Revue d’Assyriologie 93 (1999), p. 99) and on Syrian cylinder seals of the second millennium BC. It is in very good condition and notable for both its rarity and preservation.Size: 25mm x 12mm; Weight: 6gProvenance: Private London collection; ex. S.A collection, Mayfair 1970s-1980s, studied by professor Lambert in the early 1990s.