CIRCA 520 B.C.

Small stands, perhaps for cups, were not very common. The earliest surviving example, circa 570 B.C., is signed by Ergotimos as potter and Kleitias as painter (see no. 84 in Picón, et al., Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Beazley referred to the type as Sosian, after the red-figured example signed by Sosias as potter (p. 21 in Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters). For black-figured examples see no. 318 in Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, and no. 15 in Simon, et al., Mythen und Menschen, Griechische Vasenkunst aus einer deutschen Privatsammlung. That the present example is painted in Six's Technique suggests a connection to the potter Nikosthenes, who is thought to have invented the technique (see Cohen, "Six's Technique: Black Ground," The Colors of Clay, Special Techniques in Athenian Vases). Talcott and Sparkes (pp. 179-180 in The Athenian Agora XII: Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th Centuries B.C.) list 32 examples, most in black-figure, the great majority thought to be the product of a single workshop.