The Treasure House Fair
Current exhibition
Greek
A Greek Geometric pottery neck amphora, Attic, Middle Geometric II, circa 780 - 760 BC
Pottery
Height: 50.5 cm
The slim, ovoid-bodied vessel in an orange-buff clay with brown-black painted detail. The torus lip is ornamented with strokes, the tall concave neck with a panel of hatched meander with...
The slim, ovoid-bodied vessel in an orange-buff clay with brown-black painted detail. The torus lip is ornamented with strokes, the tall concave neck with a panel of hatched meander with dogtooth above and below. The shoulder has a narrow panel in the centre decorated with a quatrefoil rosette. There is a band of strokes and joined triangles around the belly, with four sets of alternating black-glazed and reserved bands below. The vessel is set on ring foot. The strap handles have a double diagonal cross between bars.
Provenance
Collection of Professor Ernst August Cornelius (1898-1983), Berlin, acquired before 1967-68
Private collection, Northern Germany, acquired from the above
Literature
Tall neck amphorae such as this were used to hold either liquids or dried food. The form and decoration are typically Middle Geometric as in this period closed shape vessels become taller and slimmer, elegantly formed with a higher centre of gravity than before. The decoration in this period is richer and less restrained For discussion and similar examples, see J.N Coldstream, Geometric Greece, 900-700 BC, 2003, pp. 51ff; fig 22f; for a similar amphora in Tubingen see, J. Boardman, Early Greek Vase Painting, London, 1998, p. 30, no. 31. There are related examples with closely comparable decoration in the British Museum (acc. no.2000,0524.1), and in Athens, National Museum acc. no. 21355.1
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