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.
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