Large Corinthian Mortarium with Frieze of Swans and Lions

With spherical body, conical neck and pinched trefoil mouth, gusseted strap handle; concentric painted circles to each lateral face and to the neck, fish motif beneath the spout and trefoil beneath the handle; repaired. 495 grams, 21.2 cm high



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.

In the Bichrome Ware, at the early Iron Age of Cyprus, patches of lines of reddish-brown paint were added to the black, on the pale background. Two styles of painting are prevalent: the rectilinear and the circle. The rectilinear style was more diffused in the eastern and southern regions of Cyprus, the circle one is found mainly in the western and northern areas.

Broad dished bowl with carinated profile, flat rim with slashed detailing, band of reserved advancing lions and swans; central panel roughened for grinding. 3.3 kg, 33.5 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. Accompanied by a thermoluminescence analysis report no.N124d55 from Oxford Authentication.

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.

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.