An Attic pottery askos in the form of a shoe covered right foot. The vessel has a flat base with a shallow arch, and upturned pointed toe. A slender black-glazed...
An Attic pottery askos in the form of a shoe covered right foot. The vessel has a flat base with a shallow arch, and upturned pointed toe. A slender black-glazed handle arching from the Achilles tendon to the black-glazed cylindrical neck. Three collection labels on the underside, and one on right hand side of the vessel.
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Antiquites de Chypre, terres cuites de Tanagra, monnaies d'Egypte, 4 March 1878, lot 101 (according to label on underside) Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819 - 1899) Collection, France; and thence by descent (collection label 195) Jack-Philippe Ruellan, Hôtel des ventes de Vannes, Les Antiques de Louis-Gabriel Bellon, 4 April 2009, lot 69
Literature
Foot askoi or aryballoi were used to store and pour perfume oils. Such oils may have been used following the removal of sandals and slippers, for example, in bathing, sympotic, and funerary settings. For a very similar example, see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 41.162.25.