Greek black-glaze oinochoe, Athens, c.450 BC
Terracotta
Height: 21cm, diameter of body: 13.4cm, diameter of base: 9cm, width including the handle: 14.2cm
10796
Further images
This jug has a slightly thickened trefoil lip, a concave neck and a high, wide shoulder. The flat pad base is reserved and covered in a light red wash, with...
This jug has a slightly thickened trefoil lip, a concave neck and a high, wide shoulder. The flat pad base is reserved and covered in a light red wash, with some small circular groves made during the potting process. Sgraffito on the base in the form of an incised eight-armed star. Old collection numbers in a nineteenth-century hand to the base reading ‘12613’. One small triangular chip to the rim restored, some touching in of the surface abrasions, a chip to the outer edge of the foot.
The oinochoe (pl. oinochoi) constitutes a very large category of vessels which had many everyday uses, acting as a means for containing and pouring a wide variety of liquids, including oils, wine and water. The shoulder oinochoe has a low foot, a short neck, a low arching handle and most often a trefoil lip. The body has no decoration, though later examples sometimes have ribbed walls. The glaze continues inside the neck of the jug, but the base is always reserved. The earlier examples in this class, which date from the late sixth to early fifth centuries BC, have a more sloping shoulder than those developed around 450BC, where the shoulder is more developed.
The oinochoe (pl. oinochoi) constitutes a very large category of vessels which had many everyday uses, acting as a means for containing and pouring a wide variety of liquids, including oils, wine and water. The shoulder oinochoe has a low foot, a short neck, a low arching handle and most often a trefoil lip. The body has no decoration, though later examples sometimes have ribbed walls. The glaze continues inside the neck of the jug, but the base is always reserved. The earlier examples in this class, which date from the late sixth to early fifth centuries BC, have a more sloping shoulder than those developed around 450BC, where the shoulder is more developed.
Provenance
Count Antoine Seilern (1901–1978), London, UK
Private collection, New Jersey, USA
Seilern was a noted art collector and historian who donated the majority of his paintings and drawings (known as the Princes Gate Collection) to the Courtauld Institute in London, as well as some major works to the National Gallery in London, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.