Cycladic kandila, Bronze Age, early 3rd millennium BC

Cycladic kandila

Bronze Age

Early 3rd millennium BC

Marble

The bulbous body with a cylindrical interior and four vertical lug handles drilled for suspension with a cord. Hollow conical foot and tall neck with delicate lip.

Part of the foot restored, one lug handle broken in antiquity and re-drilled. The rim with several chips, the surface has a pale ochre encrustation, particularly affecting the lower half, some of which has been augmented with modern materials.

This vessel is carved from a large cube of marble with grey veining. The reworked lug handle is particularly unusual. In her analysis of Cycladic vessels (see below), Getz-Gentle states that of the 1200 kandila lugs known to her, only 15, from 12 vessels, were reworked in antiquity so that they could still be used for suspension.

Provenance

Dr Hans (1900-1967) and Marie-Louise Erlenmeyer (d.1997), Basel, Switzerland; acquired mid 20th century
Private collection, UK

Literature

Compare a similar example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no.35.11.23

Publications

Pat Getz-Gentle, Stone Vessels of the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age (Pennsylvania, 1996), p.14 and p.241, no.A36, pl.6e/7a and fig.8c
Sotheby's, New York, USA, Antiquities, 17th December 1996, lot 44

Dimensions

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Stock number