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 MoreExport blue-and-white ware, kraak porcelain: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue
16th-17th centuryChineseHuangpu black-glazed ware: light gray stoneware with dark brown glaze decoratively applied over a thick coat of white slip that covers the interior and that portion of the exterior under the lip. From the Huangpu kiln, Tongchuan, Yaozhou county, Shaanxi province.
9th-10th centuryChineseWhite jadeite with emerald green markings; the stone of Burmese origin
19th centuryChineseTerracotta
GreekCeramic
20th centuryGermanTerracotta
4th century BCEGreekNumbered Jun ware: light gray stoneware with variegated blue glaze with areas of purple; with Chinese numeral 9 (jiu) inscribed on base before firing
15th centuryChineseBlue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue
19th centuryChineseCeladon ware: light gray stoneware with celadon glaze
12th centuryKorean
Blue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue; with spurious underglaze cobalt blue mark reading "Da Qing Kangxi nian zhi" on the base
19th-20th centuryChineseHard-paste porcelain with monochrome enamel decoration
18th centuryGermanLongquan celadon ware; molded light gray stoneware with applique handles and celadon glaze. From the kilns at Longquan, Zhejiang province.
13th centuryChinese