Greek Terracotta Votive Head

Comprising a bell-shaped body with narrow stem and stepped pedestal foot, broad rim with square loop handles and palmettes beneath, frieze to sidewall: Side A: Oscan warrior with cuirass, helmet, shield and spear standing beside an altar with a female holding a patera in her extended hand, diadem in the other at her side; Side B: seated female with a patera and wreath facing a standing cloaked figure with thyrsus. 2.38 kg, 29.5 cm high



Private collection, Geneva, acquired in the late 1960s. Private collection, acquired in Geneva in 2000. Accompanied by collector's notes and old images. Accompanied by an original copy thermoluminescence analysis report no.QED1412/.SG-0602 from QED Laboratoire. 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 search certificate number no.13219-249314.

The krater offers an interesting glimpse into the local life of Campania in the 4th century B.C. Particularly noteworthy is the depiction of the Oscan Samnite warrior, fully armed in the style of Campanian, Samnite, or Lucanian mercenaries, performing a funerary sacrifice. The depiction of the Chalcidian helmet, with its central crest and twin lateral plumes (geminae pinnae), dedicated to Mars, is extremely detailed. The style and the way in which the figures are realised, the conformation of the women, the details of the warrior, seem to point to the workshop of the CA Painter, a Campanian red-figure vase-painter whose name is unknown. Nevertheless, consistent individual characteristics of style suggest the existence of a unique artistic personality. Trendall called him the CA Painter because he was the chief painter in the first stage of Cumaean red-figure vase-painting, the initials standing for Cumaean (C), first stage (A).

A copper-lead alloy columnar block with broad piercing, a transverse channel to the upper face; incuse bee image with enigmatic text. 13.71 grams, 19 mm



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

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.