A 3rd cen. BCE Achaemenid goblet is slated to be auctioned at the Duke's auction house in Dorchester, England, for 988,000 dollars.

The 14-centimetre goblet is decorated with two female heads looking in opposite directions with foreheads adorned with a knotted snake pattern.

The vessel's current owner John Webber, who acquired the goblet from his grandfather in 1945, had long assumed that it was made of brass.

"My father died in the war and afterwards my grandfather gave me some things shortly before he died,” said John Webber.

"One of the things was the cup which I remember playing with. Because he mainly dealt in brass and bronze, I thought that was what it was made from," he added.

While moving his house, Webber rediscovered the gold goblet last year and decided to get it valued by the British Museum.

The analysis confirmed that the goblet was a rare piece of Achaemenid art, crafted from one piece of gold and dating back to the 3rd or 4th Century BCE.

The cup will go under the hammer on June 5, 2008 with an estimate of 988,000 dollars, BBC reported.

The Achaemenid Empire was the largest empire of classical antiquity which ruled over Persia from 550 BCE to 331 BCE.

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