Description

A black laconian aryballos with spherical body with a short cylindrical neck, thick spreading rim and strap handle, black-glazed with band of purple flanked by white encircling lines on the shoulder, a broad purple circle on the rim flanked by white lines.

An aryballos is a small, round vessel used in ancient Greece to hold perfumed oil or ointments.

Athletes commonly used them in the gymnasium: they would carry an aryballos tied by a cord, pour out oil, and rub it on before exercise or bathing. The shape is usually globular or ovoid, with a narrow neck and small opening to control the flow of oil.

Laconian refers to the region of Laconia in the Peloponnese, whose main city was Sparta. Laconian potters often painted aryballoi in the black-figure technique.

Comparable:

www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1996-0806-4

www.penn.museum/collections/object/333787

Culture

Greek, Sparta

Dating

550 - 625 B.C.

Size

6,2 cm

Provenance

Dutch collection. Bought at auction house Bonhams London. 

The Kuizenga Collection, the Netherlands, acquired in Dortmund in 1995. Including copy of an old inventory list of a part of the Kuizenga collection. 

Condition

Good condition, part of mouth broken of.