Skyphos
800-750 BCE
Description
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).
Dimensions
with handles: 6.8 x Diam. 16 cm (2 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.)
Provenance
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.
Related Artworks
View MoreTerracotta, black ware
3rd millennium BCEAnatolianTerracotta
4th-1st century BCEGreekNumbered Jun ware: light gray stoneware with variegated purple and blue glaze; with Chinese numeral 6 (liu) inscribed inside the footring before firing
15th centuryChinesePink fritware covered in plaster and painted with black (chromium) under turquoise (copper) translucent lead alkali glaze
20th centuryGray stoneware with stamped decoration and appliqué ribs and traces of natural ash glaze. Reportedly recovered near Kyŏngju, North Kyŏngsang province.
8th-9th centuryKoreanSilver
18th centuryAmericanGlass
20th centurySwedishSplashed Jun ware: coarse gray stoneware with light blue glaze enlivened with purple suffusion from copper filings
13th-14th centuryChinese
Gold
6th century BCELight gray stoneware with blackened surfaces, the decoration polished into the matte surface before firing
5th-3rd century BCEChineseSilver
18th centuryIrish