Italic Silver Wire Fibula

With flared and carinated foot, broad stem, ovoid body, carinated shoulder, everted rim with lip, D-shaped antefixes and lateral pendant loop handles; band of ivy to the neck and meander to the lower edge, frieze with figural scenes: Side A - seated female with thyrsos pointing towards Eros with head turned regarding her, wings spread; Side B - seated female in tiered robe pointing towards standing Eros with wreath, objects in the field; by the Ascoli Satriano Painter; restored. 1.81 kg, 33.5 cm



Ex private collection, previously with Bonhams, Bond Street, London, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13353-259030.

Female heads and Eros figures are common features on the vases attributed to the Ascoli Satriano Painter. His real name is unknown, and he has been named after a northern Apulian town, where many of his vases have been found.

Mould-made female protome with oval face, graceful nose and typical "archaic" smile; forehead framed by snail-shell curls descending to shoulder-height; with a low polos with a central perforation and large disc earrings. 606 grams, 19.5 cm



Ex Herbert A. Cahn, Kunst der Antike, Basel, 1997. with Paul and Vreny Vosseler-Studer, Riehen. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00057826. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12474-228714.

The presence of cults in Magna Graecia, although they fell within a well-established pantheon, in which the deity representing the Great Mother or Mother Earth, protector of fertility, natural and human fecundity, as well as health, was the most ancient, traces back to the figure of Demeter. In terracotta statuary, especially in Lucania, the goddess became the prevalent subject of votive or propitiatory offerings, reproduced in numerous variations of pose. The most common is the seated position, a distant tradition and widespread in the ancient world, the so-called 'goddess enthroned' with its multiple meanings, which allowed it to be adapted to various forms of worship. Demeter is a female deity connected to the earthly world and fertility, and therefore also present in Lucanian religiosity. The theme of the archaic protome—a head severed just below the neck—was transformed and expanded between the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., into that of the bust, finished just above the waist.

Comprising a piriform body and a tubular neck with a wide rim, a strap handle to the rear, the rim with painted polychrome petals, the pattern repeating beneath the neck and on the base of the vessel; the body decorated with fishscale decoration. 79 grams, 10.5 cm



Swiss private collection, assembled in the 1960s and 1970s. Acquired by the present owner in 2004. 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.30017-246794.

The aryballoi were used to hold perfumed oil, an essential item for the wealthy middle classes of the time. Similar piriform vases are fairly common in Corinthian contexts. There is utmost precision in both the potting and the execution of the incised scale pattern of the present example. The fish-scale decoration was realised with the incision technique, by executing the scales neatly with their ends meeting.