Achaemenid Gilded Silver Rhyton with a Stag Protome, 5th-4th century B.C.E. Silver with gold foil inlay, H. 31 cm. © Miho Museum

The tip of this rhyton is shaped like a stag with extended forelegs. The stag's horns are shaped like spread hands, and the body is decorated with spots, indicating that it is a Dama dama deer. The separately formed cup is decorated with hammered designs depicting the stag's extended hind legs and hindquarters, and the artist used the curving shape of the cup to give a feeling of leaping motion to the animal's form. The forequarters and hindquarters are skillfully joined at the middle of the animal's torso, so that the joint cannot be discerned with the naked eye. The spout is place between the animal's forelegs. The cup section is decorated with horizontal grooves, while the mouth rim area is decorated with guilloches, with a pattern of alternating lotus motifs and palmetto motifs. The major motif areas are plated with gold foil, and this shine heightens the decorative affect of the piece.

The expression of the stag's face, the shape of the vessel, and the decoration on the cup are all characteristic of the Achaemenid period. A similar work in the Metropolitan Schimmel Collection is a silver rhyton with ram decoration with the same hammered out hindquarters and plant motifs on the mouth rim area. However the formation of the animal on the Metropolitan work is somewhat more stylized and heavily formed. By comparison, this work emphasizes the elegant and lively beauty of the Achaemenid period arts seen in their amphoras with ram-shaped handles.