Serata Decals - Assyrian King

This intriguing figure is on the bed of the Serata Treadle.  

He also appears on the front and back of the machine.

When I posted pictures of this machine on the Quilting Board forum I asked for suggestions as to who it might be.  The best answer was Hammurabi.  After that I spent ages looking through pictures on the internet of Assyrian kings.  I ended up deciding that it was Sargon II.  It's as good a guess as any.  Whoever he is he must be very wise, sitting on that owl.

I emailed the Stoewer Museum to see if they knew.  Unfortunately they didn't, but I did find out that this decal doesn't crop up much in Germany, so it seems that they may have put this design on machines intended for export.

The Egyptian sphinxes were a very popular design, appearing on Singer and Frister and Rossmann machines, and are very sought after today, but I prefer the Assyrian style on this machine.

Update 30th April 2013 - I was delighted today to receive a comment from Assyria, who has identified the king as Ashurnasirpal II .  Although both relief portraits are highly stylised, the king on the machine bears more similarities to Ashurnasirpal II than he does to Sargon II.  I knew that someone, somewhere, would recognise the king, but it came as a great surprise to receive the message today.  Thank you Assyria!