267. Kantharos

Condition

Mended; almost fully preserved.

Description

Thick, rounded rim, probably fire-polished, which is mildly inward-leaning. The rim forms an acute angle at the transition toward the mastoid body. An opaque white trail has been applied and marvered at the lower edge of the rim.

Fine, applied, conical base with sharp, vertical ending. No pontil mark visible on the undersurface of the base.

Two dark blue, twisted coil handles start on the upper body and are reattached at the lower body, where they continue as a flat, slim trail all the way to the upper part of the base.

Comments and Comparanda

A form of drinking vessel represented among early imperial Roman glassware is the kantharos (Hilgers 1969, pp. 46–48, 136–138). These two-handled cups, intended to be used for drinking wine, are known in three basic variants in the first century CE, mostly dated to the first part of the century: cups with handles curved high above the rim, which stand either on a stemmed base or on a base-ring, and cups with low handles that begin under the rim and do not rise above it (Isings 1957, pp. 53–54, forms 38a, b, and c, respectively). The particular form seen in this vessel was probably produced in Italy (Isings 1957, p. 53, form 38a); on the distribution of first-century kantharoi with stemmed bases, see Van Lith 1991, pp. 99–110. Published finds include Isings 1957, p. 53, from Pompeii; Ravagnan 1994, p. 203, no. 399, second half of the first century CE, from Zara; Mandruzzato and Marcante 2005, pp. 43, 50, 107–108, nos. 300, 301, from Aquileia, dated to the first century CE and ascribed to an Italian workshop. Cf. also Bonomi 1996, p. 168, no. 377, from Adria, dated to the second quarter of the first century CE; Zampieri 1998, p. 178, no. 292, first century CE, from Padua; Fünfschilling 2015, p. 369, form AR 91, first century, from Augst; Bonnet-Borel 1997, p. 36, from Avenches, dated between 20 and 60 CE.

Provenance

1979, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Constable Maxwell [sold, Sotheby’s, London, June 4–5, 1979, lot 67]; 1984, Galerie Günter Puhze (Freiburg, Germany) [Kunst der Antike, Katalog 5 (1983), lot 294]; 1984, Dr. Max Gerchik, American, 1911–2008 (Pacific Palisades, California), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984

Bibliography

Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979, lot 67, p. 50, no. 67.

Galerie Günter Puhze 1982, no. 294.

JPGM Acquisitions 1984, p. 174, no. 39.

Exhibitions

None