CIRCA 410-400 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE PYXIS (TYPE A) WITH LID
CIRCA 410-400 B.C.
Cylindrical body: encircling frieze showing a winged figure of Eros and a group of women with attendants; Eros stands facing the right holding out a beaded necklace to a woman wrapped in her himation, behind her another figure offers the necklace to a woman carrying a large casket with hanging fillet, beyond them a seated woman is passed the necklace by an attendant standing behind, she in turn offers it to an attendant in front who holds a similar one down by her side, scrolling tendrils in the field, a band of ovolo below around the flanged lip, on tripod pedestal base
Lid: with four palmettes interspersed with lotus buds and foliate tendrils, rays around the rim, black glazed tall conical knopped handle,with presentation case
9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm.) high

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The pyxis relates to the 'Koine Class', and the figures recall those of the Painter of Athens 1585 although there are various anomalies which would make a definite attribution difficult, cf. S. Roberts, The Attic Pyxis, Chicago, 1978, pp. 108-112, pl. 69. The iconography is one that is typically found in the late 5th Century B.C. on vases associated with women, showing women with attendants accompanied by Erotes, holding caskets of clothes, jewellery, and toilet articles, often proffering necklaces. For essays on the various themes and related iconography, cf. E. D. Reeder, Pandora: Women in Classical Greece, Baltimore, 1995, pp. 91-100 and 195-238.

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