Details

LOT 0111

Greek Silver-Gilt Vase with Winged Putti Picking Grapes

HELLENISTIC, 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

5 3/4 in. (150 grams, 14.5 cm).

Piriform in profile with flared foot and carinated ring at the shoulder, everted rim at the mouth; band of punched decoration on the neck with vinescrolls; similar band to the shoulder with bunches of grapes, tendrils and putti.

Provenance

Acquired on the US art market, early 1990s.
Private collection, North America.
Private collection, London, UK.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13244-252968.

Literature

Cf. for similar, but not identical, vases in the treasure of Rogozen, in Fol, A., The Rogozen treasure, Sofia, 1989, pp.86, 170, no.109, and p.183, nos.149-150.

Footnotes

There is ample evidence that the princes of the Hellenistic world had a large appetite for expensive tableware. In a procession preceding games organised by the eccentric Antiochos IV Epiphanes (175-163 B.C.) in the Antiochene suburb of Daphne, 1000 silver vessels and 800 gold ones were carried. Kallixeinos of Rhodes reported the combined weight of gold and silver vessels displayed inside the pavilion of Ptolemy II Philadelphos as 10,000 talents, a weight of well over 200 tons.