Indo-Greek Terracotta Forger's Mould Group

With a scalloped design on the body and twin symmetrical handles rising from the shoulder; restored. 790 grams, 18.5 cm wide



From the Rempte collection, Upstate New York, USA; acquired before 1980. Ex Artemis Gallery, Colorado, USA, 4 August 2016, lot 10. with a Chicago, USA, collection. Ex Harlan J. Berk Ltd, Chicago, USA. Acquired from Palmyra Heritage Gallery, New York, 27 April 2020, lot 2. Property of a South Australian private collector, with collection reference 20.22. Accompanied by detailed collector's catalogue pages including description and photograph.

The terracotta has a distinctive shape, characterised by vertical grooves and frequently incised double spirals. The style was indigenous to Italy. The handles were thin and flat, while their sharp curves imply that the vessel’s shape originated from metallic prototypes, like shown by silver examples with gold handles found in the Regolini-Galassi Tomb in Caere (modern Cerveteri).

Broad shallow body with disc base, thick rim with pierced lug handle; repaired. 635 grams, 24.5 cm wide



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Important Cypro-Geometric ceramic types include white-painted and bichrome wares, often decorated with geometric motifs and showing inventive shapes; slightly later, a distinctive black-on-red wares was developed on Cyprus, partly as a result of contact with the Levant.

With stamped retrograde inscription and rectangular panel : 'ΕΠΙ NΙΚΑΣΑΓΟΡΑ[Σ]' = under Nikasagoras. 49 grams, 82 mm



Acquired in the 1970s. From the private collection of a retired East Anglian teacher.

This fragment of Rhodian Amphora carries the Eponym official 'Nikasagoras', referring to the Eponym Officer of Rhodes of the year in which the amphora was produced and stamped. He is a well known eponym, also attested by an inscription. His stamps are individualised in comparison to those of the other two namesakes, Nikasagoras the Elder (circa 240 B.C.) and Nikasagoras 1 (circa 172–171 B.C.). These officers seem to have been those of the annually chosen priests of Helios who were the dating authorities of the Rhodian state.