Greek Pottery Sherd with Inscription Above Hercules Wrestling a Warrior

Including ellipsoid, discoid and vesica types with various motifs. 24.8 grams total, 10-25 mm



From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.

A shallow phiale with chamfered, thickened rim; narrow band of gilding beneath the rim, broad parcel-gilt decorative band with wave borders framing reserved tendrils and foliage; to the centre a parcel-gilt panel with keystone border and quatrefoil motif. 428 grams, 21.2 cm



French collection, 1980s. Pierre Berge & Associes, Paris, Archéologie, 16 May 2018, lot 214. Accompanied by a copy of a seven-page examination report number 113/2019 by Dr habil Mikhail Treister. Accompanied by the original French archaeological passport. Accompanied by a copy of the relevant Pierre Berge & Associes catalogue pages. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.10426-168735.

The bowl is comparable to an early group of Parthian bowls, kept in the P. Getty Museum, dated to the 2nd century B.C. It belongs to a group of bowls with parcel-gilt decoration on the interior, most probably manufactured in one of the Eastern Hellenistic workshops.

Cylindrical with stepped foot, five palmettes above the shoulder, dynamic frieze of two men visiting two hetairai, each of the figures dressed in long pleated garments, at the centre of the scene, a hetaira on the right reaching towards the bearded male and gently touching his chin with her open hand, a tall draped table behind her with an amphora underneath and a standing bird on the top. 459 grams, 26.4 cm



H.A.C. (Herbert A. Cahn), 19 October 1979. Private collection, Bern, Switzerland. Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report no.N125q45 by Oxford Authentication. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12644-236376.

The Athena Painter is known as the painter who designed several Greek black-figure pottery works using the 5th-century BC white-ground technique. He specialised in lekythoi and refers to Athena as the main subject in his works. Together with the Theseus Painter, they continued the tradition of painting large lekythoi. His black figures are of high quality, and in addition to lekythoi, he decorated other potteries such as oenochoai. Some archaeologists say that he may have been the same person as the Bowdoin Painter of red-figure pottery, although they may have just worked in the same workshop.