Christie’s
This Attic red-figured vase, called a janiform kantharos on account of its drinking vessel shape, features in Christie’s antiquities sale in King Street on July 5.
Attributed to the Athenian spetia class, c.420 BC, the 9in (23cm) high piece depicts the head of a bearded satyr on one side and a female head on the other.
Its provenance has been traced back to the Sotheby’s sale of Count Spetia di Radione in 1928. Latterly, the vase has resided in the same family collection for at least three decades.
Estimate £20,000-30,000.
Ariadne Galleries
This 3½in (9cm) fragment is attributed to Sophilos, the first known ancient Greek artist to sign his name as a painter. It is also one of the earliest surviving depictions of the satyr in Greek art.
The piece, which originally formed part of an Attic black-figure dinos (wine-mixing bowl), will star in an exhibition dedicated to the Greek vase at the Ariadne Galleries in Mayfair. ‘Greek Vases and Master Drawings’ is part of London Art Week (June 30-July 7) and features mainly Athenian black-figure and red-figure examples. The fragment is priced at £45,000.
Charles Ede
This miniature 3in (8.5cm) high black on red neck amphora from Cyprus is priced at £450 from London dealer Charles Ede.
The intact terracotta piece, decorated with concentric circles and banding, has been in the same family collection since 1983.
Christopher Martin
This large complete and intact redware jug from the Holy Land has survived since the Middle Bronze Age, c.2000-1730 BC.
The 10½in (27cm) high jug with trefoil mouth stands on a short ring foot with slightly rounded base, and is priced at £250 from Christopher Martin’s London gallery, Ancient & Oriental.
Rupert Wace
The Antimenes Painter is known for his black-figure style depictions of Herakles, Dionysos and chariot scenes, which he painted on to Attic vases from 530-510 BC.
His hand has been attributed to the decoration on this 16in (40cm) high hydria, dated c.520 BC. The central scene shows two warriors in crested Corinthian helmets, one driving a quadriga pulled by four horses.
With two lateral handles to enable lifting and one vertical handle for pouring, this type of hydria was used in funerary rites for carrying water and pouring libations.
Formerly in the Swiss collection of Emile Foltzer (d.1982), it has been recomposed from original fragments and is priced at £180,000 from Rupert Wace Ancient Art in Mayfair.
David Aaron
This terracotta piece originates from the little-known Amlash culture, which flourished in northern Iran during the 1st millennium BC.
Spanning the modern-day provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, the Amlash culture produced an array of terracotta figurines, ranging from highly stylised votive idols to zoomorphic libation vessels.
This 11in (28cm) high piece will be on the Masterpiece stand of David Aaron, priced at a six-figure sum. The London dealer describes it as “charmingly simple in design, his eyes, ears and nose are all formed from small clay balls that have been attached… working each limb down in to its simplest shape like an early form of Cubism”.
