Lebes Gamikos

Burnt earthenware
Sicily, Centuripe, ca. 275-225 BC
H: 67cm

A Western Greece (Magna Graecia) impressive and sizeable polychrome and partly gilded Lebes Gamikos vase consisting of three sections, the foot basis, the body and the lid. Lebes Gamikos were vessels associated with weddings and were originally decorated with painted figures and mythological subjects. On our example one can still see the faded phantom figure of a standing female.

Cf. G. Pugliese Carratelli, The Western Greeks (London 1996) p. 751 nr. 388.

Condition: Professionally put together from fragments and entirely complete. TL tested by CIRAM laboratories.

Provenance: The fragments formerly, in the 1970’s, in possession of Dr. Elie Borowski, Basel. Another part of Borowski’s Centuripe vases was auctioned by Christie’s, New York, in June 2000.

Item reference: CL1363