Cypriot Red Burnished Ware Round Bottomed Pouring Vessel

Broad shallow body with disc base, thick rim with pierced lug handle; repaired. 635 grams, 24.5 cm wide



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.

Important Cypro-Geometric ceramic types include white-painted and bichrome wares, often decorated with geometric motifs and showing inventive shapes; slightly later, a distinctive black-on-red wares was developed on Cyprus, partly as a result of contact with the Levant.

A wide bowl with carinated lip and lateral lug handle on a flat base; decorated on both sides with umber pigment on a white slip; to the outer face, a snake and band motif; to the inner face, multiple bands of crescentic, triangular net and zig-zag motifs; to the underside, low-relief inscription (partly legible). 535 grams, 23.5 cm



Tackey Crist, Cyprus Museum collection, NC, USA. Ex Leland Little auctions. with Cyprus Museum of Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA.

The piece is reminiscent of earlier white-painted wares of the middle-late Cypriot period. Although wheel-made white-painted ware is known from as far back as the Late Cypriot period (1300-1200 B.C.), the present piece must date to the Roman occupation of the island (from approximately the 2nd century B.C. onwards) because of the reserved (not impressed) Latin characters extant on the underside. The characters appear to have been applied to the clay whilst the vessel was wet. The inscription is impossible to decipher fully but contains the characters ... IN... ..AN.... ...DE M..... The use of 'D rather than Greek delta 'Δ' implies a Latin text.

Including squat and biconical bowls, amphora sherds and other types. 3.34 kg total, 4-19 cm



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.