Lot 597

Cypriot White Painted IV Trefoil Oinochoe, Cypro-Archaic I

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Lot 597
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Cypriot White Painted IV Trefoil Oinochoe, Cypro-Archaic I
Cypriot White Painted IV Trefoil Oinochoe, Cypro-Archaic I
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Cypriot White Painted IV Trefoil Oinochoe, Cypro-Archaic I

Estimate: $700 - $1,000

Current Bid: $350

(1 Bid)
by Artemis Fine Arts
July 30, 2026 8:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus, Cypro-Archaic I, ca. 750–600 BCE. A full-bodied wine jug whose squat, biconical belly tapers to a tall, narrow neck rising to a pinched trefoil mouth, a single strap handle arcing from rim to shoulder. The pale buff ground is dressed in matte reddish-brown paint laid down as concentric bands that girdle the neck, shoulder, and belly, while a register of fine vertical strokes radiates across the upper shoulder like the rays of a comb. This restrained linear vocabulary is the signature of White Painted IV ware, a hallmark of Cypriot ceramic production during the Cypro-Archaic period. The oinochoe served the pouring of wine and water at the table and at funerary libation, its trefoil lip channeling the liquid in a clean stream. Such vessels were thrown in quantity yet retain an assured, hand-painted individuality. Size: 6" D x 6.9" H (15.2 cm D x 17.5 cm H).

White Painted ware spans the entire Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic sequence, with Einar Gjerstad's Swedish Cyprus Expedition dividing it into numbered phases (I through VII) by shape and decorative syntax. White Painted IV belongs to the Cypro-Archaic I horizon, when potters favored crisp encircling bands and panels of hatching or vertical lines over the denser geometric fields of earlier centuries. The trefoil oinochoe was among the most enduring Cypriot vessel forms, equally at home in domestic use and in the tomb, where wine jugs accompanied the dead as grave furniture. Cyprus, positioned at the crossroads of the Aegean, Levantine, and Egyptian worlds, absorbed and recombined these influences into a distinctly insular ceramic idiom.

Provenance: private Atlanta, Georgia, USA collection, acquired in August 2020; ex-Ancient Resource Auctions, California, USA, acquired in August 2019; ex-Gorny & Mosch, Munich, Germany; ex-collection of Karl Jakob Muller, Germany, acquired 1950-1977.

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Item # 202927

  • Condition: Professionally repaired with restoration over break lines as well as to spout and handle. Light surface wear with some abrasions in areas. Otherwise, very good presentation with nice remains of painted decoration.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $749 $25
$750 $1,499 $50
$1,500 $2,999 $100
$3,000 $7,499 $250
$7,500 $14,999 $500
$15,000 $29,999 $1,000
$30,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000