Greek Tripod Vessel with Handle

Tubular terracotta form with crenellated rim, four inward-facing lugs each with a hole beneath, inner ledge, lateral vents and square aperture at the base; hatched texture to the rim; two lateral ledge handles. 12.1 kg, 39.5 cm wide



Ex Stella Pitt Rivers collection, Dorset Museum, UK. Acquired from Sotheby's, London, 13 May 1980, no.160. with Bonhams, London, 15 October 2008, no.139. with Bonhams, London, 29 April 2009, no.340. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent. Accompanied by copies of the relevant Bonhams catalogue pages and original lot ticket.

With broad flat foot, short stem, broad bowl with carination at the shoulder, two square strap handles; frieze of black-painted decoration including two scenes of a quadriga chariot with a man stepping in to the chariot and a musician with a kithara, between palmettes; some restoration. 520 grams, 24.5 cm wide



Cambridgeshire, UK, collection, 1990s-2000s. Ex property of a Suffolk, UK, gentleman. Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report no.N124a8 from Oxford Authentication.

These Attic kylikes were usually presented with a stemmed base, a deep bowl and two upturned loop handles, on 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.

The body formed as a female bust with elaborately styled hair; discoid foot, tall stem with pinched rim giving a broad pouring lip, strap handle to the rear; some pigment remaining. 446 grams, 22.2 cm high



Old French private collection. Swiss private collection, Basel-Landschaft. Private collection of M. Tritten, Binningen, Switzerland. Property of an East Sussex, UK, gentleman.

The Canosan ceramic workshops produced several series of head vases, starting with a red-figure imitation of the Attic plastic oenochoe attributed by Beazley to Group N.21. The next product combined two ceramic techniques: a) the neck, mouth, and handle were executed in red-figure technique with superimposed white rays on the neck; b) the head was drawn from two moulds, mounted on a base rim, and decorated with white slip and polychrome after firing. It belongs to the initial phase of the polychrome ceramic production of Canosa, for which only this type of mould is known. It also illustrates the close collaboration which existed between potters and coroplasts. The same archetype was used in the next phase, producing entirely polychrome head vases, like this one, in which traces of polychrome are still visible on the mouth and near the left ear.