Antiquity of the Week: Villanovan Pottery Vessel

Our selection for antiquity of the week is thus superb, intact Villanovan Impasto Ware Vessel


CULTURE / REGION OF ORIGIN: Villanovan Culture, Italy (Northern Lazio or Southern Etruria))
DATE:  8th – 7th Century BCE
DIMENSIONS: Maximum height with handle 11 cm (4.3 in.); maximum width 13.1 cm (5.1 in.); rim diameter 12.0 cm (4.7 in.)



Link to this Item: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i41.html

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i41.html

DESCRIPTION: A Villanovan brown Impasto Ware dipper. The vessel rests on a flat bottom, expands to its greatest width about half way up the bowl, narrows slightly, then continues vertically up to the lip. At three roughly equidistant points around the outside of the body, there are nipple-like projections. The handle is flat in section and divided into two loops. The entire surface is highly burnished, inside and out. There are three very small chips to the rim but the vessel is otherwise intact. A very nice example of the type.

PROVENANCE: Formerly in the collection of Lord Dayton of Corran, the collection formed between 1960 and 2000.

PUBLISHED: Ex Bonhams, ANTIQUITIES, 27 April 2006, London, Page 160, illustrated in color on Page 159.
COMPARISONS: Sestieri and De Santis, The Protohistory of the Latin Peoples, Electa, Rome, 2000, pages 36, 62 and 84 for examples of Villanovan Impasto Ware jugs or dippers of very similar form, with divided handles and projections on the body. 

SPECIAL NOTES:  The Etruscan civilization of Italy has its immediate roots in the Villanovan culture of west central Italy; an area open to influences from Greek and Carthaginian colonists and traders and northern European Celtic cultures. The Villanovan culture, centered in a broad area around the modern city of Bologna, rapidly developed from simple agricultural village life to a more socially stratified and technologically sophisticated society. The Etruscan cities of the following centuries grew directly out of Villanovan town foundations.This large, beautiful, highly polished pottery vessel offers a glimpse forward to the sophisticated Etruscan Impasto and Bucchero wares of the 7th and 6th Centuries BCE.

Ancient Cypriot Ceramics: A Brief Review

The Island of Cyprus, still divided after 4 decades between the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot state — a member of the EU– and the Turkish Cypriot state, and very much in the news lately because of its economic woes, has a profoundly long and complex history. Once the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, it has seen immigrants and invaders come and go for many thousands of years. Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Turks, British colonials and others have all left their mark on its landscape and culture.

One very tangible component of the Island’s surviving ancient material culture is pottery. Almost indestructible and abundant, ceramics have been key to aiding more modern excavators in reconstructing the Island’s complex ancient history. Prior to the signing of modern international conventions restricting the export of Cypriot antiquities, a great deal of Cypriot material was removed from the Island by amateurs, explorers, museums, financially motivated looters and by archaeologists. Much of this material is available on the legitimate antiquities art market today.

Our website offers a good selection of material, from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic era. Our selection is by no means comprehensive, as the range of ancient Cypriot pottery types, fabrics, designs, etc. is enormous and just as complex as the Island’s history. Below please find a few images with links to those items on our website.

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i383.html 

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i6.html 

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i94.html 

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i4.html

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i5.html

 

Our "Links" Page: Another Useful Resource

The "Links" Page on our website -- http://www.clioancientart.com/id15.html -- offers a wealth of resources relating to antiquities, ancient art and ancient cultures. There are links to general online resources about antiquities collecting, links to academic and museum collections online, links to antiquities trade associations and to both print and online publications, and much more. Here's that link again --

http://www.clioancientart.com/id15.html

Enjoy!

A Useful Tool: Our “Sold Antiquities” Page

http://www.clioancientart.com/id18.html

This is the link to our “Sold Antiquities” page, which includes images and brief descriptions of objects we’ve sold over the last couple of years. By virtue of the great number of items it displays, it is a very useful tool both for researching antiquities in general, and specifically for tracking antiquities we’ve sold. So often, antiquities with perfectly legitimate provenance pass from a dealer to a private collector, then perhaps to another collector or dealer, and loose their provenance information in the process. Using this page, items we’ve sold may be traced back to Clio Ancient Art and their long term provenance established.

Here’s the link again: http://www.clioancientart.com/id18.html

Enjoy!