800-750 BCE
Very low ring base. Squat, echinoid body with shallow lobing along surface. Loop handles set at a slight angle above the horizontal, placed just below join between body and shoulder. Very narrow shoulder curves up to a low, vertical, collar-like rim. Orange-buff fabric with dark brown slip. Slip flaking on exterior. From a solid ground line that extends up from the base, tongues, outlined in double and filled with a row of chevrons, arise. Just below the shoulder, a dot rosette fills the blank space between each of these tongues. The shoulder and rim contain a row of dots flanked by two solid lines. Hatch marks decorate the handles. The interior of the vessel is completely slipped with a brown slip slightly darker than that found on most of the vessel's exterior. Small patches of irridescence are visible here. The undulating surface of this vessel and its chevroned-tongue decoration are likely meant to represent the gadrooning (lobing) seen on metal vessels (see Coldstream 1968, 50-51).
with handles: 6.8 x Diam. 16 cm (2 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.)
Purchased in Christie's London auction of 29 October 2003 by Dr. Jerome Eisenberg of Royal-Athena Galleries in New York. Originally in a private collection in Solothurn, Switzerland. It was for a long time in the stock of the dealer Heidi Vollmueller of Zurich who sold her entire inventory at Christie's South Kensington in November 2003 at which time HUAM purchased this cup.
Possibly Xing ware; porcelain with incised and appliqué decoration. Possibly made at the Xing kilns, Hebei province.
10th-11th centuryChineseTerracotta; buff clay
8th century BCEGreekCast bronze; with inscription cast on the vessel floor
13th-11th century BCEChineseTerracotta, white ground
6th century BCEGreekStoneware with variegated blue glaze, the exposed body at the foot coated with an iron brown slip
19th centuryChineseEnameled blue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration in underglaze cobalt blue, the background areas embellished later with overglaze red enamel; underglaze cobalt blue mark reading "Zhengde nian zhi" within a double circle on the base
16th centuryChineseBlue jasperware with figures and decoration in white relief
18th centuryBritishCarved rhinoceros horn
17th centuryChineseTerracotta
GreekBronze
4th-3rd century BCEGreekTerracotta
5th century BCEGreekTerracotta
2nd century CERoman