Details

LOT 0061

Large Greek Red-Figure Pelike with Nike

APULIAN, 3RD-2ND CENTURY B.C.

10 1/4 in. (1.19 kg, 26 cm high).

Comprising a pedestal base, mastoid body, lateral strap handles and funicular neck, broad mouth with stepped rim; the neck decorated with a band of egg-and-dart; palmette below each handle, flanked by tendrils and flowers; Side A: naked Eros (Cupid), hair in a bun and tied with a cloth, right arm outstretched and holding a flower by the stem, left hand holding leaves and tendrils; Side B: Nike standing in himation and stephane, holding up a drum-shaped object and supporting leaves and tendril, flower patterns to the background.

Provenance

Acquired on the art market between the late 1990s and mid-2000s.
Estate of the late Barry Paul Buxton (1944–2024), Oakham, Rutland.
Acquired on the UK art market, 2025.

Accompanied by a thermoluminescence analysis report no.N126a15 from Oxford Authentication.
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.13089-248952.

Literature

Cf. for a Pelike in similar style the BM inv.no.1867,0508.1278 in In Trendall, A.D., Cambitoglou, A., The red-figured vases of Apulia, Oxford, 1978, no.20 p.144.

Footnotes

The Greek term pelike (pl. pelikai) was used for a number of shapes, and it is not certain what this one-piece vessel with a distinctive sagging belly was called in antiquity. It seems to have been invented after the introduction of the red-figure technique, although there are examples in black-figure. It continued to be produced into the 4th century and in the Roman period. It is shown in use as a container for liquids, especially wine, and in this context was linked with Bacchus, Pan, and Silenus.