Rare Cypriot Ring Askos w/ Ram - TL Tested

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Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Feb 21, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-02-21 10:00:00 2019-02-21 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities, Asian, Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-3858
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• Lot Description
  Ancient Greece, Cyprus, Late Bronze to Early Iron Age, Late Cypriot III, ca. 1200 to 1175 BCE. Full of personality, a Cypriot wheel made white painted ringed askos depicting a ram. The vessel sits upon four nubbin feet below the hollow ringed body with a wonderful zoomorphic head emerging from one end and a joined double, high arched basket handle arching across the piece. The surface is beautifully painted in black on a creamy ground with fret motifs adorning the lengths of the handles framed by solid linear borders, alternating upright and inverted triangles further adorned by parallel striated lines and dark outlines, with thick borders over the ringed body, and on that magnificent visage - paint highlighting the coiled applied horns, low relief eyes, and circular snout. Size: 7.5" W (end of ram head to opposite end) x 4.625" H (19 cm x 11.7 cm)
  
  A great deal more time and energy was required to create a vessel of this complex shape. Due to this, these vessels were regarded as more special and of a higher value - representing a higher order offering to the deceased - akin to an elaborate wreath placed upon a grave today. The potter of this piece used great ingenuity to create the form and to decorate the surfaces. According to Desmond Morris, "In magical and symbolic terms, the ring has always stood for eternity. As Cirlot (1962) puts it: 'Like every closed circle, the ring is a symbol of continuity and wholeness. This is why (like the bracelet) it has been used both as a symbol of marriage and of the eternally repeated time-cycle." Morris also comments on the unusual occurrence and reoccurrence of this form. "The ring-vessel theme is the hardest to understand. It does not appear to have some other vessel shape as precursor or prototype. It erupts suddenly in the Chalcolithic and then re-surfaces in the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Bronze Age, the Late Bronze Age, and the Early Iron Age." Given this great time span, Morris questions whether this was a continuous phenomenon or several independently emerging ones. (Desmond Morris, "The Art of Ancient Cyprus" Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1985, p. 78.)
  
  This piece has been tested using thermoluminescence (TL) analysis and has been found to be ancient and of the period stated. A full report will accompany purchase.
  
  Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-Dr. Sid Port collection, California, USA, acquired in the 1980s
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
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  #143869

  Condition

  Handle reattached at juncture with the ring with restoration with repainting to the apex of the basket handle. Minute losses to tip of one of the ram's horns. TL hole on underside of ringed body. Old collection labels on the underside of the body.
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