Mycenaean Pottery Stirrup Jar, ex Royal Athena

Ancient Greece, Mycenaean Period, Late Helladic III, ca. 13th century BCE. A hand-built pottery jar of a sizable form with a protruding circular foot, a wide apple-shaped body with a rounded shoulder, a pair of arching handles that join at the top of a false central spout, and a functional spout set off-center along the shoulder. Elegant black-slip motifs are presented atop a cream-slipped ground with concentric bands of varying widths around the foot and body, thin bars enclosed with parabolic arches on the midsection, abstract stippled triangles along the upper shoulder, a 'bullseye' motif atop the false spout, and a frieze of dense tracery just beneath the shoulder. A fabulous example of fine utilitarian pottery from a time when Mycenae was at its peak of influence in the Mediterranean! Size: 8.125" W x 8.75" H (20.6 cm x 22.2 cm); 9.4" H (23.9 cm) on included custom stand.

This period is so named for the palace at Mycenae, famed in Homeric legend as the opulent seat of King Agamemnon. Excavations at the palace at Mycenae revealed an elite and long-lasting society with a great deal of wealth. This extended to the workshops of artisans who produced pottery like this vessel both for use in Greece and throughout the Mediterranean world; shiploads of similar jars went out as far as the Levant and Spain, carrying oil, wine, and other commodities.

For a stylistically-similar example, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 74.51.1393: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/240964

Another stylistically-similar example, of a slightly smaller size, hammered for $9,375 at Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction (sale 2565, June 8, 2012, lot 55): https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ancient-art-antiquities/a-mycenaean-pottery-stirrup-jar-late-helladic-5567195-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5567195&sid=15a34e99-503d-4f16-9024-946913ddf1a9

Provenance: ex-estate of Roy Green, Birmingham, Alabama acquired before 2015; ex-Royal-Athena Gallery, New York, USA; ex-private French collection

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#148756
Condition Report: Professionally restoration to several areas of lower body and midsection, with repairs to handles, with resurfacing and overpainting along new material and break lines. Abrasions and nicks to foot, spout, and handles, with fading to original pigmentation, areas of misfiring resulting in red coloration, and light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout. Old inventory label beneath base.