EARLY BRONZE AGE, CIRCA 2300-2000 B.C.

Details

A CYPRIOT BLACK-TOPPED RED POLISHED WARE TULIP BOWL
EARLY BRONZE AGE, CIRCA 2300-2000 B.C.
The deep ovoid bowl with six vertical handles (or spouts) projecting upwards from the shoulder, one with unusual stylized human face on its flattened tip, the mouth and eyes being rendered with the same circular motif, the flanking pair with flat incised plates, the body with incised geometric decoration, groups of dotted multiple semicircles around the rim, panels of different linear motifs between the base of each handle, dotted line below with a dotted zigzag band encircling the lower body, repaired with restoration
7 3/8 in. (18.8 cm.) high

Exhibited

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1985.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
The Art of Ancient Cyprus, p. 103, pl. 168.

This multi-handled bowl appears to be the only known example of its kind. Desmond Morris mentions an imaginative interpretation of it as a kind of 'loving cup' with a different person drinking from each space between adjacent handles. This interpretation is suggested by the fact that the incised band between the handles shows a different pattern in each segment.

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