Greek Bronze Furniture Fitting Group

Engraved with a goddess (Aphrodite?), facing right, peplos around her hips, her left elbow resting on a column and her left hand behind her body; the right hand outstretched and holding a sceptre; a snake(?) before. 2.52 grams, 22 mm



Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection.

In the famous Greek myth of the Gorgon, Aphrodite, jealous of their beauty, placed a curse on Medusa and her sisters, transforming their hair into snakes and making their gaze turn anyone into stone.

With inverted echinus lip and tall neck, a ribbed handle to each side with coiling lotus buds and palmettes beneath the handles; Side a) a running winged Gorgon depicted frontally, dressed in a black and red chiton; Side b) an aristocratic warrior wearing a Chalcidian helmet and driving a quadriga, the two central horses superimposed, the other two turned outward; a frieze of lotus buds and a band Greek key motifs below, the neck decorated with red and black palmettes, and elongated lotus blossoms; restored. 3.25 kg, 39 cm high



Acquired in Geneva in 1954. Formerly in the Y. Forrer collection, Geneva, Switzerland. Private collection, Switzerland, 1999. with Gorny & Mosch, Munich, 20 June 2012, lot 73. 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.11798-206784.

This wonderful vase can be attributed to the Swing Painter, active in Athens during the last part of the 6th century B.C. Beazley named him after the subject of a girl on a swing that he painted more than once. He was a pot painter, perhaps a pupil of the Princeton Painter. His black-figure paintings included a range of mythological subjects and some quite unusual images. A very large number of vases have been attributed to his hand on the basis of style. Characteristics of his painting in the mythological scenes, are the presence of hoplites, that give a very realistic rendering of the Greek Archaic warriors of mid-6th century B.C. (München, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1385 [J 729] Beazley Archive Pottery Database 301590; Poseidon fighting the giant Polybotes, Louvre F226). An important artwork is the famous representation of the Tyrant Pysistratos and his Rabdophoroi (bodyguards armed with clubs, Athens National Archaeological Museum 15111, Beazley Archive Pottery Database 301523).

Raised fluting decorating the body, broad c-section neck and everted rim, segmented openwork handle. 174 grams, 90 mm high



Acquired in the 1960s-1970s. Ex European private collection. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11856-206542.