Attic Pottery - Black Gloss Ware: Black Gloss Kylix
Inv. No.: 91.008
Provenance: Attica
Date: 450-400 BC
Height: 36mm
Diameter: 183 mm (including handles)
Gift of Dr Joc Tranberg
A small, finely potted, stemless black cup. The lip is concave and slightly flaring in profile. It is offset from the low rounded bowl. A ridge marks the junction between lip and bowl on the exterior of the vase while inside is a groove. The bowl sits on a ring foot. The horizontal handles are rounded in cross section and curve upwards from where the lip joins the bowl, continuing the gentle curve of the bowl and contributing to the elongated, elegant appearance of the cup. The shiny black is thin in places and chipped and abraded, especially along the edge of the lip, on the handles and where the lip joins the bowl. The potter has not smoothed all the potting marks from the interior and slight grooves remain. The black slip is thinner on the ridges between the grooves and these areas have fired slightly red.
Function:
A drinking cup.
Manufacture:
A wheel-thrown vase with turned foot and hand-made handles.
Bibliography:
Corbett, P. E., Journal of Hellenic Studies, LXXIV (1954), 182 (name "Rheineia cups" from findspot of a number of vases of this type).
Sparkes, B. A. and L. Talcott, The Athenian Agora: Volume XII. Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th centuries BC: Part 1, Princeton, New Jersey, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1970, "Stemless Cups", 98-105.
Comparanda:
Breitenstein, N. and K. F. Johansen, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Danemark 7, Copenhague 7 (1955), IV, Plate 283, 7-9 (coarser examples from South Italy).
Hayes, J. W., Greek and Italian Black-Gloss Wares and Related Wares in the Royal Ontario Museum: A Catalogue, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 1984, No. 36; see pp. 24-25 (coarser example).
Kunze-Götte, E., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 26, Stuttgart 1 (1965), Tafel 36, 7 and 8 (coarser examples).
Lamb, W., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 6, Cambridge 1 (1930), III L G, IV, Plate XLI, 23 (similar shape with thin covering of black).
Sparkes, B. A. and L. Talcott, Pots and Pans of Classical Athens, Princeton, New Jersey, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1977, Fig. 11.
Sparkes, B. A. and L. Talcott, The Athenian Agora: Volume XII. Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th centuries BC: Part 2, Princeton, New Jersey, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1970, Plate 21, 459 and 461 (very similar Rheneia Cups); see also Plates 22 and 23 for other examples of stemless cups.