Greek
A Greek black-glazed pottery guttus, South Italy, circa 4th century BC
Pottery
Height: 12 cm
£ 4,500.00
With a ring handle and angled spout with out-turned rim, the body decorated with vertical striations, the central medallion with a kneeling animal in relief.
With a ring handle and angled spout with out-turned rim, the body decorated with vertical striations, the central medallion with a kneeling animal in relief.
Provenance
Christos
Bastis Collection, New York, acquired before the 1990s
Sotheby's, New York, The Christos G. Bastis Collection, 9 December 1999, lot 144
Literature
Gutti were used as vessels for water or oil, which would be poured out in drops (hence the name from the Latin gutta, to drop), during offerings and at other occasions. The shape is distinctive to Magna Graecia, with a closed body, a small handle on the shoulder and a tall angled spout. Decorative motifs were often impressed on the top. For a similar example but with a medallion of Medusa in the British Museum, see accession number 1988,0619.4. For further discussion see M.-O. Jentel, Les gutti et les askoi à reliefs étrusques et apuliens: essai de classification et de typologie, Leiden, 1976.