Djabra (Gabriel) Pierides

Djabra Pierides (1852-1928), also written Giabra and Gabriel, kept the Mycenaean vases of the Larnaca collection that his father Demetrios Pierides had begun. The Pierides Foundation's 1985 catalogue gives his name as Kyprael or Giabra and describes him as a scholar and lover of antiquities^1,2. Of Demetrios's two sons, the catalogue says, Zeno acquired mainly pottery and sculpture of the historical periods, while Giabra became the owner of one of the finest collections of Mycenaean pottery in Cyprus¹. Karageorghis's 1973 catalogue says Demetrios donated the collection to the two sons, while the 1985 text says he bequeathed it^1,2.

In 1894 or 1895 two capitals from clandestine diggings at Idalion passed into his collection. Olivier Masson and Antoine Hermary call it the most important private collection of Larnaca at that date⁴. A pair of earrings from the secret digging of 1895 at the Nikolides cemetery is credited to "G. D. Pierides" in the Cyprus Museum catalogue of 1899⁷. The same initials appear on "A Scarab from Cyprus" in the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1896, which concerns a Marion scarab showing Theseus and the Minotaur⁸. Tatton-Brown's list of correspondents gives "Pierides, G.D. (Djabra) 1852-1928" and notes letters to the British Museum in 1896-98⁶.

He sat in parliament and became Consul of Norway in 1906¹. He died in 1928, and the Mycenaean vases passed to his son George Giabra Pierides^1,2.