Greek black-glaze lidded jug, Athens, mid 4th century BC
Terracotta
Height: 8.1cm
11370
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Expertly potted with a rich, glossy black glaze, the jug has a finely-detailed lion-headed spout on one side for pouring or feeding. A bifurcated loop handle is attached from the...
Expertly potted with a rich, glossy black glaze, the jug has a finely-detailed lion-headed spout on one side for pouring or feeding. A bifurcated loop handle is attached from the shoulder to the wide, horizontal lip. The near spherical body is decorated with rounded vertical ribs and sits upon a turned pad foot. The concave neck is offset at the shoulder and leads to a wide flaring mouth. Beneath the lid, which is topped by a stemmed, cone-shaped knop, are lugs to lock the lid into position when being poured. Beneath the spout are two old collection numbers, one is rectangular and printed in black with ‘125’, the other is an oval with blue border and hand written in black ink with ‘241’. One lug missing from the underside of the lid, otherwise intact.
A vessel such as this could well have been used to feed a child or infirm adult; the accurate pouring funnel through the lion’s mouth, and the secured lid make for functional additions to this well known shape.
Provenance
Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819-1899), St. Nicholas-les-Arras,
France; collection number 241, sold through Jack-Phillipe
Ruellan Sale, Vannes, France
Bellon was one of the greatest French collectors of the
19th century. Making his fortune in the textile industry,
he began to buy and collect archaeological pieces from
the Mediterranean world. Until the end of the 1870s he
accompanied Auguste Ternick in archaeological excavations
in the Arras region. Some of his collection can be seen at the
Museum of National Antiquities of Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
the Petit Palais in Paris, the Louvre Museum, and the Berck-sur-Mer museum.
Literature
For an identical example but without its lid compare Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Bochum,
Kunstsammlungen der Ruhr-Universitat 2, Deutschland
4227, pl.75, no.4-5 (S 195)
Publications
Jack-Philippe Ruellan, Hôtel des ventes de Vannes, Les
Antiques de Louis-Gabriel Bellon, 4th April 2009, lot 67
