Catalog: Antiques (287)

Rare Attic red-figure cup-skyphos with draped young men.
The athletes on the left wear the spiked wreath for the winner of the torch-race and stand opposite draped youths.
Some hold a strigilis in their outstretched right hand.
The scene represents a ceremony performed after winning the torch-race.
In this type of race, a torch was passed in a relay. The goal was to finish the race with the torch still burning...

Extremely rare head fragment from a wooden figure of about one meter in height.
The hollow-cheeked face tapers to a narrow jaw with angular chin. The small mouth with pursed lips curved into a strained smile. The straight nose with flared nostrils, the eyes heavy lidded. The area under the corners of the eyes partially damaged by worms.
The tautness of the facial features suggests a strong, determined character. The man wears a Nubian cap...

Large ornate vessel with wide funnel-shaped mouth and vertical handles alternating with raised left hands. The hands enhanced with stripes. Dots on the back of the hand, the forefinger and the little finger.
On the shoulder metopes with painted panels and dotted spaces over ivy garlands. For a closely related vase cf. no. 211 in: Electa Napoli. L’art des peoples italiques. Geneva 1993.
Ceramic
Daunian, Subgeometric II B, 475-425 BC
H. 28 cm (11 in)
D...

The panels with extraordinary depictions of a gender-based division of labor.
The hunting scene shows a naked man with a spear grasping at a bird hidden behind a large ivy leaf which may represent the forest grove.
On the other side a woman with diminutive head and outstretched arms. Assuming that plants are denoted by contouring dots, she is standing next to three trees in her garden.
Figural depictions on this type of pottery are rare...

Rare handmade askos of lenticular body and truncated conical neck.
The lip around the spout is shaped as an oversized disc. Its back was bent by the potter to create space for an unusual ring handle of square cross-section.
Decorated with orange and purplish black bands alternating with very thin fillets and diamond patterns. The front of the neck with chevrons, one of them spiky, both flanked by a branch or shrub...

Protomes of prancing horses joined at the midsection to a wagon-like box.
The visible face with carefully incised manes, bridles, and indicated joins to the legs. The eyes recessed to bear spheres of a different material.
The slightly bent groove between the front legs indicates that the attachment was put over an object...

Wall fragment rendered in sunk hieroglyphs showing a nicely carved vulture over a shallow bowl and the sign for bread. The sequence mentions the goddess Mut and can be completed to the recurring epithet ‘Mut mistress of the sky’ [Mwt nbt pt].
The feet of another bird appear over the vulture.
Mut was an ancient Egyptian sky goddess and great divine mother. During the 18th Dynasty she formed the Theban triad together with the god Amun and her youthful son Khons...

Attic red-figure askos decorated with a dog and a panther crouching on the domed top. The animals face the spout and are seen with one foreleg raised.
The panther has turned the head towards the viewer and shows a spotted coat.
The shallow vessel shows a low dome-shaped top, the small flaring spout raises obliquely from the shoulder; overarching handle. The flat base reserved with a tiny mold on the edge.
For a closely related example, cf. CVA Reading, University 1, 43, pl...

Large vase decorated with red-figure scenes. A chiton clad woman with a small box stands in front of a naked youth holding a taenia; the youth’s cloak is wrapped around his arm.
Volutes and flowers in the field, a discus placed between the heads.
Cloaked youths with strigilis and a walking stick on the reverse.
The side handles with a central ridge, the areas below show heavy palmettes with lateral volutes and bellflower blossoms...

Mesopotamian incantation bowl with the meaningless repetition of the same letter. The text is grouped in adjacent areas and surrounds two demonic figures with differentiated sexual attributes.
The woman appears with long hair or a veil, the man is depicted with a short brush cut.
Arms and legs are hatched, the fingers indicated. The arms are bound together.
Between the figures a scorpion with segmented body and multiple legs...

Rare pouring vessel in the form of a sphinx shown recumbent on a raised base.
The fantastic creature shows a beautiful female head with chubby facial features...

Fine Western Greek head fragment with calm expression and appealing Early Classical facial features. The face shows a prominent nose, full lips and a heavy chin. The beautifully arched brows span over indistinct eyes that were originally painted. The hairline above the forehead with heavy curls.
The Severe Style marks the transition from Late Archaic to Early Classical art. It is defined by the simplicity or severity of forms, visible in both facial features and treatment of the clothes. ...

Nice black-figure lekythos with men, two of them seated on fold chairs (okladiai). The men show nicely rendered heavy heads. They wear cloaks, some with faded bordures or dots, two of them holding staffs (?)
Branches without leaves in the field. Two rows of radiating strokes on the shoulder.
Ceramic
Athens, 500-480 BC
12.4 cm (4.9 in)
Intact and in excellent condition. Right-hand figure slightly discolored.
German collection, acquired in the German art ...

Late Corinthian kylix decorated on both sides with geese flanked by griffin-birds. The geese turn their heads back. The griffins show crested heads, sickle-shaped wings and protruding tail feathers.
Black-glaze design on buff ground, incised details, red color on the wings and for some dots applied on the necks.
The kylix belongs to the Workshop of the Bird-Frieze Painter. The workshop began in 600-575 BC with quality-oriented pottery and shifted to coarser mass production around ...

Large kylix with the sketchily depiction of a woman in the tondo. The lady takes a smell at a flower in front of her face. The style is cursory, the details keenly applied with a brush.
Singular Italic imitation of a Greek cup, executed by a local artist of limited experience.
For a comparable cup from the Peucetian settlement of Ruvo, cf. fig. 6.6 in: Ada Riccardi. The Italic People of Ancient Apulia. Cambridge 2014.
The firing process was stopped too late turning to a warm...

Oversize axe of rhomboid shape with a short vertical and a broader horizontal blade. Roughened surface and a central perforation to insert a pole. The use of the item is unclear, also in view of the considerable weight of four kilogram. The type is described in the literature as axe hammer and also as double axe. For an almost identical example cf. item no. 144, in: Christian Zervos. La civilisaton de la Sardaigne du début de l’eneolithique à la fin de la période nouragique. Paris 1954. ...

Uncommon Etruscan belt buckle with hooks ending in a female head flanked by a couple of lion heads.
The lions bent forward with ears laid back and teeth bared. Both with lenticular eyes and engraved mane.
The woman looks in the opposite direction and shows a pointed face with almond-shaped eyes. The strands of her hair are curled up in front of her chest, much in accordance with archaic style.
Hooks and loops appear on narrow rectangular frames with emphasized corners. Belts...

Small squat lekythos decorated in read-figure with the head of Hermes to the right. The winged pilos helmet with dotted feathers; the offset bottom of the helmet spotted.
The head with a short nose, mouth with protruding lower lip, heavy chin. A large mass of hair on the temple. A vegetal ornament in front of the head. Behind a dotted point. A reserved base below.
The eye, the base of the helmet and the wings are rendered with relief-line.
Lekythos of wide bell mouth, low n...