1967.01

Attic Geometric Skyphos

Purchased. Ht 7.8cm; diam. 12.5cm.

Intact but for some minor chips and abrasions. Smoothly-finished, soft, rather pale orange-buff clay with small dark red and some white inclusions; some of the latter are large and have exploded through the surface during firing. Slightly concave vertical lip with simple rim. There is no articulation at the junction with the shoulder. Flat base with short vertical outer edge. Rising horizontal handles of circular section.

Red-brown paint, worn in some areas, probably as a result of misfiring.

A and B: Two panels of hatched quatrefoil with dot-rosette filling, separated by panels of stacked zigzag and with stemmed dot-rosettes to the sides. The panels are separated by groups of three vertical lines and there are similar groups above, below and on the handles. On the lip is a zone of tangential blobs. The lower wall is painted solid; the underside is reserved. The inside is painted solid but for a reserved band with line at the lip. The paint inside is quite red, perhaps through stacking of the vase in the kiln.

Attic Late Geometric II A; about 725 bc. Earlier skyphoi have a shorter, more sharply offset lip, but this is relatively tall and upright, with a smooth transition from the shoulder.

Folio Fine Art Ltd (London), Catalogue 41 (November 1966) no. 207 (ill.); Charles Ede, Collecting Antiquities (London 1976) 7 no. 15 (ill.); J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U., Canberra, 1981, 19.