PTOLEMAIC, FIRST HALF OF 3RD CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN TURQUOISE GREEN FAIENCE DOLPHIN-HANDLED VASE WITH GARLAND
PTOLEMAIC, FIRST HALF OF 3RD CENTURY B.C.
The tall, elegant fluted body with twin dolphin handles each with spread tail terminals, the shoulder encircled with a moulded relief foliate or petalled wreath, two holes on either side of the lower body where spouts would have been attached, on funnel base, dolphin handles partially restored, with wooden mount
16 1/8 in. (43 cm.) high

Exhibited

On loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997-2004.

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Cf. R. S. Bianchi et al., Cleopatra's Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies, The Brooklyn Museum, 1988, pp. 223-225, no. 116 for a similar vase from the collection of Jack A. Josephson, "The technical skill with which this vase was formed and fired is remarkable because the vase's relatively large size suggests that the individual parts were made separately, either in molds, as would be the case for the handles in the shape of dolphins, and/or on a wheel for the foot, body, and neck, and by hand for the spout and the garland. These individual pieces were then joined together before firing ... In terms of the faience production of vessels in the Ptolemaic Period this vessel is exceptional."

See illustration on previous page.

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