Cypriot Red Polished Ware Vessel Group

Mixed group of vessels including biconvex bowl, drum-shaped jar and other types, some with painted ornament. 2.3 kg total, 7.4-20 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.

Enlivened with crimson, ochre and white slip; with rays on the neck, the shoulder showing a lady of fashion lying, adorned with earrings and bracelets, holding a patera in her right hand, and foliate sprigs in the field; palmette at the base of the handle, and grape vine on the cotton reel body. 229 grams, 16.5 cm



Ex Ancient Art Shop, Windsor, UK, in the 1990s. Heads and Tales exhibition, Piccadilly, London, 2002. From the collection of PA, Hertfordshire, UK.

Stretched-out figures of women or Eros appear frequently on the shoulders of epichyseis in the Menzies group. This epichyseis substituted the image of a woman to that of Eros, sitting nude in other identical vessels on a dotted white and white-stripe ground line with his legs outstretched before him. The woman holds in his right hand a patera, exactly as the Eros on the epichyses in the Getty Museum. The position of the woman, the treatment of the dress and the position of the legs, as well as the palmette decoration and adjuncts would suggest to associate the vase with the Menzies Group.

Comprising six fragments from a bowl once decorated with concentric circles around a central disc with expanding black rays, remains of palmette to the sides of the handle; the internal base with two facing warriors holding spears and a wreath, the older one depicted with a beard. 67 grams total, 34-89 mm



Acquired in Europe before 1990. Private collection, Europe. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11820-206481.

The Rider Painter was a Laconian vase painter active between 560 and 530 B.C. and is considered to be one of the five great vase painters of Sparta. He painted various forms predominantly kylikes but also lebetes, a form rare in this area. He mainly painted scenes from mythology, such as figures like Cadmos or Heracles, and tales such as the blinding of Polyphemus. In addition, he realised pictures from everyday life. The attribution of these fragments to his workmanship can be supported by the motifs painted on the exterior decoration of the vessel, and by the shape of the birds and figures. The illustrated scene fits within the warrior society of Spartan Laconia.