Cypriot White Painted Ware Jug

With elegant fluted body, drum foot and elaborate up-swung handles, displaying polychrome panels on both sides, between a laurel wreath below the rim and a band of Greek meander motif; Side A: the hero Bellerophon riding Pegasus, wearing a Thessalian hat (petasos), depicted nude except for a cloak fastened at the centre of the neck by a round clasp, the hero towering above the other two mythological characters beneath him: Princess Filinoe, on the left, crowned and dressed in a long chiton, and King Iobates of Lycia, dressed in Persian fashion with a long sleeved red tunic worn under a long dress, the field with a representation of an altar, two palm branches over a volute krater, a shield, a javelin, a lotus flower, and above the hero a hanging shield and two clamydes; Side B: figure of a young beardless man, wrapped in a large cloak and holding a staff, with windows and floral scrolls on the background. 7.6 kg, 56 cm high



Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. From the family collection of Mr S.A., Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection since the late 1990s. 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 a search certificate number no.12068-218200.

The decoration is very different on the two sides: on the main one, the painter has created a large mythological scene as if it was a summary. The scene comprising the famous hero Bellerophon riding Pegasus, the winged horse, flying above Iobates and his daughter (who will become the hero's wife). The king sent Bellerophon to perform impossible mission, among which the best known is the fight against the Chimera (monster with the body of a lion and a goat, with a snake's tail and two heads, one of a lion and the other of a goat).

Carved in the round as an advancing bull with its tail placed between the hindlegs, thick fur to the throat; the fill between the legs with traces of cross-hatching in red pigment; old collector's label '477' to flange base; mounted on an old wooden collector's stand with painted numeral '193' to one face. 1.29 kg total, 24 cm including stand



Base and collection numbers suggesting it may have been deaccessioned from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Joseph Klein collection, formed in New York between 1941-1980, thence by descent. with Bonhams, London, 24 October 2012, no.3. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

This possibly represents a bull or bull calf associated with the Apis cult.

Formed with a high foot and loop handle to the inturned rim, decorated on the outside rim with a complex pattern of interlocked chevrons perhaps representing two seated figures. 410 grams, 18 cm



From the estate of Mr Robert Onsted (1948-2011). Ex Malter Galleries Inc, California, USA, 2007. Palmyra Heritage Gallery, New York, USA, 19 October 2020, lot 141. Property of a South Australian private collector, with collection reference 20.21. Accompanied by detailed collector's catalogue pages including description and photograph.

Hencken notes that cover-bowls as the lids of urns assume various closely related shapes; if there is ornament, it generally consists of some of the same decoration as is found on urns.