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Lot 77*

An Attic black-figure lekythos

28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £3,750 inc. premium

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An Attic black-figure lekythos
Attributed to the Phanyllis Group, circa 550-530 B.C.
Decorated with two sparring boxers, nude with bound fists, one figure shown jabbing while the other running combatant parries, flanked by two draped standing attendants each wearing a red himation, the shoulder decorated with a large scrolling palmette flanked by two draped figures, details in added red, 23cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 24 April 1967, lot 79.
Walton family collection, acquired at the above sale; and thence by descent to the present owner.

Due to the increasing popularity of local and national athletic festivals, boxing became a particularly popular subject for Attic vases of the 6th Century. The scene on the above lekythos portrays a particularly energetic combat between two youths. See U. Gehrig, Antiken aus Berliner Privatbesitz, Berlin, 1975, no. 222, for a very similar lekythos with boxers, and Beazley Archive no. 1532 for another at Zurich University, acc. no. 13.

Additional information

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