Bidspirit auction | ATTIC BLACK-FIGURE LEKYTHOS

ATTIC BLACK-FIGURE LEKYTHOS - Ca. 5th century BC.A wheel-thrown lekythos which sits upon a well-formed discoid foot, with elegant straight walls that rise to a flat shoulder and taper to a corseted cylindrical neck. The rim is flared and in-folded, and a high-arching handle joins the neck and shoulder. The shoulder is painted with black radiating stripes, and the rim and body were black-glazed but show signs of wear. Lekythoi were used for storing oil used for a wide variety of purposes in the ancient world. While larger examples were usually designated for keeping olive oil, smaller more delicate examples were reserved for the bath to store precious unguents of sweet and floral aromas. For Athens in the 5th Century BC, Lekythoi enjoyed a strong period of popularity in the funerary sphere, and can often be seen next to graves on the designs of other funerary pottery of the region.Size: 165mm x 65mm; Weight: 185gProvenance: Private London collection, B.A.; formerly in pre-2000 European collection.