Greek Terracotta Mask of a Satyr

A terracotta kylix with broad flat foot, short stem, broad bowl with carination at the shoulder, glared mouth and two square strap handles; frieze of black-painted decoration including two scenes of a chariot yoked to two centaurs, one with sgraffito markings, between palmettes; restored. 566 grams, 25.5 cm wide

Restored.; fine condition, repaired.

Cambridgeshire collection, 1990s-2000s. Ex property of a Sussex gentleman. Accompanied by an academic report by 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.11579-198944.

These Attic kylikes were usually presented with a stemmed base, a deep bowl and twin, upturned loop handles, all upon a concave base. The exterior walls were decorated with black-figure technique on red background, here in a style remarkably similar to that of the Haimon Painter, especially in the rendering of facial features, and feet. The imagery on the exterior of these kylikes, used in the symposia, varied a lot. Just as the cup could be a mask (in the so-called typology of the Attic black-figure eye cups) to transform the drinker, to give a “complex painted character”. Daily life scenes, or fantasies like the chariot here pulled by centaurs, were among the various subjects.

An opaque cream-coloured glass bottle with vertical ribbing around the globular body, trumpet-style neck and mouth with rolled rim. 76 grams, 73 mm high



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998.

An alabaster bust of a goddess with elongated face and large almond-shaped eyes; braided hair with openwork topknot and socket to accept an inset stud, gathered at the rear in a chignon. 639 grams, 11.6 cm



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private Swiss collection since 1998. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11611-199026.

Several female figures, found in the Parthian graves of Babylonia, are represented in loose attire exhibiting strange headdresses, which give us some notion of the costume of the period. Some of them show a headgear rising into two tall conical peaks, from which a veil is suspended. Nude female figures, probably representing Assyrian Mylitta or Venus, were extremely common during the Parthian period, having been handed down from antiquity. Similar figures are universal throughout the east before the Christian era.