Description:
A pottery skyphos (a wine drinking cup) from the south Italian region of Apulia. The vessel is standing on a low foot, is black-glazed and is decorated with a grape pattern of added yellow, white and magenta below a design consisting of an egg pattern, double hortizontal lines, a wavy line, another double line and a row of dots. The back is decorated with two rows of dots with a double line inbetween.
The decoration is typical for pottery which is commonly called Gnathian, after the name of present-day Egnazia (located on the Adriatic coast of Apulia). In the middle of the nineteenth century large quantities of pottery with this type of decoration were found during excavations of the cemeteries of Egnazia (and nearby Fasano). Ever since they were known as the pottery of Egnazia, or Gnathia pottery, even though little of it was in fact made at Egnazia.
Literature:
J. Richard Green, "Gnathia and Other Overpainted Wares of Italy and Sicily: a Survey", in Évelyne Geny (ed., sous la direction de Pierre Lévêque et Jean-Paul Morel), Céramiques Hellénistiques et Romaines III (Besançon, Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises, 2001), 57-103; J. Richard Green, "The Gnathia Pottery of Apulia", in: Margaret Ellen Mayo - Kenneth Hamma (eds.), The Art of South Italy. Vases from Magna Graecia (Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1982), p. 252-258.
Dating:
Circa 4th - 3rd century B.C.
Size:
Height 9 cm., width including handles 13.3 cm.
Provenance:
Ex Joseph H. Rose collection, New York, 1950s-1960s; with Arte Primitivo, New York, 22 March 2004, lot 538.
Condition:
Professionally repaired from a few large pieces, so well done that even under magnification it is sometimes difficult to see where the pieces were rejoined.
Price
€ 600
Stock number:
C2108