Proto-Corinthian tripod-pyxis
Reel-shaped pottery pyxis in light brown clay with circular lid, cylindrical body and supported by three broad legs. These containers held cosmetics, jewelry and small personal items; they were often given as wedding gifts and can be found in graves. This example is decorated with geometrical motifs, painted bands, concentric circles, triangles or ivies, and strokes. The rim and decorations are in red glaze. The undecorated lid ends with a squat and convex handle, and the rim is offset. This example belongs to the earlier form of pyxides, with concave sides and Protogeometric decorations. Later artefacts have convex bodies.
Object number: 127.074.
Date: 7th century BCE
Parallels: London, British Museum 1860,0201.33, 1865,1214.31; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum 86.AE.142, 96.AE.222, to compare the knob 86.AE.142.2; very similar examples New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 25.78.103a, b, 41.162.108a, b, 47.14a, b, compare with 06.1021.27, 22.139.4a, b, to compare the lid 74.51.433; compare with Paris, Louvre Br 5705, CA 1857.1, CA 3044.1, E 15.1, MNC 668; compare with Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 1800072175.
References: Richter, G. M. A., Handbook of the Greek Collection, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953, pp. 26, 176; Bohen, B. E., "Attic geometric pyxis", PhD Dissertation, New York University, 1979; Aspects of Ancient Greece: An exhibition organized by the Allentown Art Museum with the cooperation of Gloria Ferrari Pinney and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Allentown Art Museum, September 16 through December 30, 1979. Catalog no. 9; True, M., and Hamma, K., (eds), A Passion For Antiquities. Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman, exh. cat. (alibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1994, p. 353; Wachter, R., 2001. Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 222–3; Heinrich, F., Das Epinetron. Aspekte der weiblichen Lebenswelt im Spiegel eines Arbeitsgeräts, Rahden, 2006, pp. 154-156; Bergeron, M., “Pots and people: Greek trade and votive rituals at Naukratis”, in D. Robinson and F. Goddio (eds), Thonis Heracleion in context: The maritime economy of the Egyptian Late Period, Proceedings of the conference in the University of Oxford, 15-17 March 2013, 2015, pp. 267-281.
Photo by Steve Morton