AN ETRUSCAN IMPASTO VOTIVE MODEL OF A BOAT

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AN ETRUSCAN IMPASTO VOTIVE MODEL OF A BOAT
9TH-8TH CENTURY B.C.
With flat bottom, broad horizontal poop, raised prow broken off, small circular holes decorate the interior around the top of the sides 10¼ in. (26 cm.) long; an Etruscan bucchero ware female mask appliqué, from a large vessel; another similar, both 2½ in. (6.4 cm.) high, 6th Century B.C.; a Rhodian pottery child's rattle in the form of a tortoise, 2½ in. (6.5 cm.) long, 5th Century B.C.; a Romano-Egyptian pottery grotesque head of a man with frowning features, 2 in. (5.1 cm.) high; a Roman green glass unguentarium, repaired, 4.3/8 in. (11 cm.) high, both circa 1st Century A.D.; a Roman pottery oil lamp; and a bronze lamp with rope-pattern Omega, both circa 4th-6th Century A.D., 3¼ in. (8.2 cm.) long max. (8)

Lot Essay

Item one: cf. U. Avida (ed.), Italy of the Etruscans, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1991, pp. 146-147, nos. 160-163; and S. Cassani (ed.), Art of the Italic Peoples from 3000 to 300 B.C., Geneva, 1993, pp. 111-112, nos. 22-24 for similar. Pottery boats have been found in rich male tombs in western central Italy, one having been found containing food for the deceased. Although they may symbolize the voyage of the dead to the other world, they could also represent the past activity of the owner, either in fishing or merchant shipping.

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