Painted in red with hatched lines and a frieze of long-billed flying birds. In places the red pigment has turned black in firing. One handle a horizontal loop, the other a solid wedge with indented edge, perhaps to resemble a bird’s tail or tortoise’s foot.

Bowls decorated with flying birds were a speciality of Boeotian potters during the 6^th century BC. The birds and other elements are often painted upside down, either because the bowl was intended to be hung by its handle, or simply because the painter found it easier to work that way.

 

Literature: J. Falconer and T. Mannack, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain, Fascicule 19: Winchester College (Oxford, 2002), p. 19, plate 14.8-10; C.A. Picón, Classical Antiquities from Private Collections in Great Britain (London, 1986), p. 19 (no. 9); Winchester College Memorial Buildings: Department of Classical Art (Winchester, 1909), p. 13 (no. 6)

Exhibited: Sotheby’s, London, 1986

Provenance: From Boeotia, at Winchester College by 1909

Location: Treasury, Gallery 3