EARLY/MIDDLE BRONZE AGE, 2300-1650 B.C.

Details

A LARGE CYPRIOT DRAB POLISHED WARE SUBSIDIARY-UNIT JUG
EARLY/MIDDLE BRONZE AGE, 2300-1650 B.C.
With 'nipple' base and cutaway spout, the neck with a zoomorphic lug in the form of a detailed animal head, two plain lugs above on either side of the spout, mounted on the jug's shoulder are a bowl on one side of the neck and a jug on the other, the rim of the bowl with four projecting spurs with incised dots and a pierced lug below, the subsidiary jug with single lug and incised dots, on the shoulder of the parent jug is a pair of crossed snakes shown in relief and additional incised 'cross-over' pattern in dots on the neck, juglet repaired
14 5/8 in. (37.3 cm.) high

Exhibited

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1985.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
The Art of Ancient Cyprus, p. 110, pl. 171.

The function of these complex subsidiary-unit vessels is not known. They were undoubtedly valuable funerary vessels and would have been costly to produce. Whatever the shape of the larger parent vessel, the miniature vessels sprouting from its shoulder are almost always of a particular type - cutaway-beak jugs and shallow bowls. One could then think that they represent some kind of 'ritual set', displaying in miniature some form of specific 'liquid rite'. It is also possible that they represent simply the ingenuity and exuberance of the ancient potter who, released from the constraints of making a hard-wearing vessel for every-day use, could embellish his creation as he wished and make as impressive a display as possible to reflect the status of the deceased and his mourners.

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