Hellenistic Garnet Gemstone with Hercules Club and Lionskin

Nearly cylindrical body with a slightly sloping shoulder with five palmettes and eight dots in between; main image showing a Dionysian procession with two advancing nude satyrs facing a young male playing a double pipe, each of the satyrs leaning on a walking stick and having a long garment draped over their shoulders and wearing a fillet and a large wreath on their heads. 649 grams, 29.2 cm



Münzen und Medaillen A.G., H. Cahn, Basel, 24 April 1989. Private collection, Bern, Switzerland. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12641-236375. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Decorated with a meander with saltire squares below the figural scenes, and a laurel below the rim; Side A: a nude gesticulating satyr with short curly hair and long beard, running to the right with his left leg raised and his arms outstretched, characteristic pointed ears and pug nose, towards a maenad moving right and looking back at him, her hair short and curly, her body draped in a chiton, with another maenad standing behind him, facing left, draped in a himation over a chiton; Side B: three youths in draped cloaks with hoods thrown back; professionally restored. 2.1 kg, 29 cm wide

Fine condition, professionally restored.

Belgian private collection, 1950s. with Christie's, New York, 4 June 2008, no.190. Private central European collection. Accompanied by a copy of the relevant Christie's catalogue pages. 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 a search certificate number no.12067-218141. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The style allows us to attribute this vase to an unknown artist of Lucanian origin: it is in ancient Lucania (a region which is located between present-day Calabria and Basilicata, in Southern Italy and between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea, with Metaponto as a well-known city) that the first Italic style of red-figure painting developed.

Modelled in the round with realistic features, textured plumage, rounded beak. 236 grams, 10.1 cm



Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12378-226677. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.