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LOT 0085
Proto-Corinthian Painted Terracotta Aryballos
7TH CENTURY B.C.
4 1/8 in. (79 grams, 10.5 cm).
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.
ProvenanceSwiss 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.
Cf. for similar aryballoi, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession nos.37.128.1 and 07.286.38; cf. also Anderson, J.K., ‘The Corinthian Pottery’ in Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol.53/54 (1958/1959), pp.138-151, no.84 pl.24; Saka A. and Aktaş R., ‘A group of archaic pottery from Çandarli at the Izmir Archaeological Museum in Gürtekin Demir R.G., Cevizoğlu, H., Polat Y. & Polat G. (eds), Archaic and Classical Western Anatolia: New Perspectives in Ceramic Studies, Proceedings of the second Keramos international conference at Ege University, Izmir, 3–5 June, 2015, Leuven – Paris – Bristol, 2018 cat.12-13 p.272; a lower portion of a similar Proto-Corinthian piriform aryballos was found in Sardis, see Sardis Museum inventory no.P61.252, and Schaeffer, J., Monograph 10: The Corinthian, Attic, and Lakonian Pottery from Sardis, Harvard, 1997, cat.no.48; for a comprehensive list of other examples in public and private collections see the fundamental work of Neeft, C.W., Protocorinthian Subgeometric Aryballoi (Allard Pierson Series, vol. 7), Amsterdam, 1987, pp. 282f., list 274, CX, CXI, CXIII, CXIV: NC 478A type1; on the scale patterns in general, ibid. pp.275-289.
FootnotesThe 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.
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LOT 0085
Proto-Corinthian Painted Terracotta Aryballos
Estimate £2,000 - 3,000€2,320 - 3,480 (for guidance only)$2,700 - 4,050 (for guidance only)
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Greek Bronze Laconian Horse
5th-1st century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
Protome formed as the upper body of a horse with forelegs bent and head turned; ribbed saddlecloth to the back; remains of attachment peg to underside. 27.8 grams, 49 mm
Acquired by a Swiss family in the mid-1980s to late 1990s, thence by descent. Private collection, Switzerland, since the late 1990s. -
Greek Bronze Bird
Geometric, 8th-6th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £234
Modelled in the round with triangular fantail, lateral bulb eyes, pierced transversely at the chest for attachment. 19.8 grams, 45 mm
Acquired by a Swiss family in the mid-1980s to late 1990s, thence by descent. Private collection, Switzerland, since the late 1990s. -
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Bronze Batillum Depicting a Reclining Banqueteer with Skyphos and Rhyton
Parthian, 3rd-1st century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £4,680
Comprising a square base with a raised border and supported by four stub feet, each originally surmounted by poppy-head finials (some absent); a hollow-formed figure of a banqueteer reclining elegantly with his weight resting on his left elbow, his right leg drawn up beneath the folds of a finely pleated robe; in his right hand, a ram’s head rhyton and his left hand cradling a skyphos; his bearded head with a laurel wreath. 1.58 kg, 25 cm
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.
The composition reflects the iconography of elite banquet culture in the ancient world, capturing both refinement and ritual in a single expressive figure. The Greek 'συμπόσιον' 'symposium' 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.
