A GREEK OR ETRUSCAN BRONZE SITULA HANDLE

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK OR ETRUSCAN BRONZE SITULA HANDLE
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.
Composed of two arching bails rectangular in section, each of the fluted ends folded back and terminating in a bud-shaped finial, the spout suspended from two loops framed by volutes, cast in the form of a mask of Silenos, his neck arching up with the mouth open through to the interior of the now-missing vessel, with a long curly beard, thick moustache and bald pate, his lidded eyes articulated beneath bulging brows
8 5/8 in. (21.9 cm.) long

Provenance

European Private Collection, 1974.
Anonymous sale; Boisgirard & Associés, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 16 June 2005, lot 22.

Lot Essay

For similar examples see no. 129, p. 223 in von Bothmer, et al., Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis, and no. 25, p. 39 in Jucker, Italy of the Etruscans. Both authors concede that the type is difficult to attribute without a known find-spot, as they "belonged to a type of situla common from Gaul to southern Russia" (Jucker, p. 39, op. cit.). Jucker adds that the majority are from Etruria, where she believes they were manufactured. Von Bothmer, however, (p. 223, op. cit.) leaves it ambiguous by assigning the Bastis one as "Etruscan or Greek."

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