LOT 0067

Parthian Reclining Banqueteer Holding a Skyphos and Rhyton

3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.

9 7/8 in. (1.58 kg, 25 cm).

Furniture fitting comprising a square panel with raised border and four stub feet, poppy head finials (one absent); hollow-formed banqueteer reclining with weight on his left elbow and proper right leg bent beneath his pleated robe; right hand raised supporting a ram's head rhyton, left hand supporting a skyphos; wreath of laurel leaves around his bearded head.

Private New York collection, formed in the 1960s.
Acquired on the North American art market, 1990s.
with Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, Switzerland, 13 November 2015, no.84 (CHF 18,000).

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.12379-226873.

See the Getty Museum, accession number 96.AC.255, for a 3rd century BC batillum decorated with a banqueteer; see also Hanfmann, G.M.A, Detweiler, A.H., ‘Report on the first Campaign on Sardis’ in Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, Sayi: IX-1, Ankara, 1959, pp.14-19; Garnsey, P., Food and Society in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge, 1999, for discussion on Greek and Roman feasting customs.

The Greek 'συμπόσιον' 'symposion' was the later part of a formal banquet which took place after the food had been consumed, when the serving of strong drink was accompanied by music, dancing, poetic composition or recital or earnest conversation. The custom has similarities with the Roman convivium and with the customs of many Mediterranean and Western Asiatic people. The Parthian Empire was culturally diverse and included many Hellenic groups; the Arsacid court adopted a range of aspects of contemporary Greek culture, among them Greek military structures and the Greek language as a lingua franca alongside the Parthian (Iranian) language and Aramaic.