CIRCA 490-480 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC BLACK-FIGURE PSYKTER (WINE-COOLER)
CIRCA 490-480 B.C.
The body decorated with a dancing scene consisting of four pyrrhichists (warrior dancers) and three female dancers, the women fully clothed, wearing wreaths and holding clappers, each of the men naked with himation and wreath and holding spear, one holding up a cup, another of them older and bearded, a row of tongues around the neck, repaired with some restoration
14 in. (35.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Given to the present owner by the late Dr. Leo Mildenberg.

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

The psykter, designed for cooling wine, was adopted as a vessel shape by the red-figure Pioneers working in Athens during the last quarter of the 6th Century B.C. The mushroom-shaped vessel, with hollow walls down to the base of its 'stalk', was designed to stand within a kalyx-krater - another innovation of the Pioneers; the wine was contained in the psykter, the coolant around it. Many representations of the psykter, and the ladles used with it, are to be found on symposium scenes in Greek vase painting. It enjoyed popularity for a relatively brief period from the last quarter of the 6th to the first half of the 5th Century B.C.

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