Details

LOT 0052

Archaic Greek Ceramic Model Boat

CIRCA 600-480 B.C.

9 5/8 in. (728 grams total, 24.5 cm wide including stand).

Modelled in the round as a miniature flat-bottomed boat with sternpost and three thwarts, one supporting the reclining figure of the boatman; supplied with a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Accompanied by an old identification tag.
Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report from Oxford Authentication.

Literature

Cf. similar item in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, under accession no.74.51.1752, for type, from Amathus.

Footnotes

A series of ship models, today preserved in the Metropolitan Museum and in the British Museum, depict in considerable detail the features of contemporary vessels, including the helmsman sitting in the bow, the spurs of the ships and the raised stern. All of the preserved ship models come from Amathus, indicating the importance of the site as a maritime centre. Our model could come from the same area. This clay model shows a man who comfortably sits on the back of the ship: we do not know his role and his activity, but – as observed by professor M.A. Mcintosh, he is part of a theōriā, a state pilgrim (theōros). Certainly, he represents the helmsman, the kubernētēs, i.e. the governor who directs the ship.