Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia to Eastern Greece, Hellenistic Period, ca. 5th to 3rd century BCE. This is a beautiful and elegant pyxis vessel hand carved from alabaster with a tiered lid. The body is cylindrical with a flat stable base and a carinated shoulder with a thick raised ring to delineate the shoulder from the body. Boasting creamy hues of grey and tan with natural white striations, the alabaster surface of the ancient vessel has been carefully incised with a lovely series of slender horizontal bands on its sloping shoulder and around its body. The rim of the vessel is broad and a discoidal lid with a raised conical handle that fits flush atop the narrow mouth. Size: 4.1" Diameter x 4.5" H (10.4 cm x 11.4 cm)
The pyxis form, a rounded vessel with small, fitted lid, is found throughout the ancient Near East and the Classical world, and was probably imported to the ancient Levant from Mycenaean Greece. These have been found in burial chambers beneath Tels, the settlement mounds common to this region, often alongside many other vessels - bowls, oil lamps, juglets, and flasks - some made nearby, others imported from Greece and the Greek South Italic colonies. These items remind us of the interconnected trade world of the ancient Mediterranean, and the rich cultural milieu of the past.
For a similar example please see the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art's website, accession number: S2013.2.10a-b.
Provenance: private New York, USA collection; ex-Sotheby's, New York, June 8, 1994, lot 409
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#170811
Condition
Rim is repaired with a piece reattached and visible break line. Nicks and chips to surface and high pointed areas commensurate with age and use. Natural stone coloration / striations and mineral deposits scattered throughout. Sotheby's label on base.