Finger Ring with Miniature Spouted Bowl, Greek, Early Cycladic II, ca. 2700 – 2400/2300 B.C.
This carved
ring bowl is one of only five known in stone. While two are of jadelike stone,
one of orange buff stone, only two are made from marble with plain bowls
surmounted on top. The context of discovery for all five rings are lost.
However, it is known that one of the jadelike rings and the ring of buff stone
were found on Naxos, and it is very well likely that all the rings were
produced if not also found there. Our ring is said to have been found with a
harp player carved in the Early Spedos style.
The ring fits a woman’s ring or smallest
finger. Alternatively, it might have been mounted on a wooden rod. Vivid
remains of red pigment on the chipped spout and in the diminutive bowl suggest
a use in the cosmetic painting process: with the ring secure on one hand, the
painter’s other hand would be free to apply the paint. Also, it is speculated
that the ring might have symbolic connections to music as it was discovered
with a Cycladic marble harp player.
Provenance
Art Market (London), by 1971;
illustrated in catalogue of Robin Symes Ancient Art, published London, June 1971;
sold to a Japanese Private Collection (surname Ogawa);
consigned by his inheritors to Sotheby’s London, Antiquities, 15 July 1980;
Collection of G. Callimanopulos (U.S.A.), by 1987, at which time illustrated in Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibition catalogue;
with Ward & Company (New York) by 2004;
sold to Collection of Michael and Judy Steinhardt (New York), 2004-2019.
Publications
Ancient Art, (Robin Symes Ancient Art Catalogue, June 1971), no. 15.
Sotheby’s London, Antiquities (15 July 1980), lot no. 132.
Pat Getz-Preziosi, Early Cycladic Art in North American Collections (Washington University Press, Seattle and London 1987) p. 326, no. 146.
P. Getz-Gentle, Stone Vessels of the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age (Pennsylvania State University 1996) p. 112-3, pl. 62a.
P. Getz-Gentle, Ancient Art of the Cyclades (Katonah Museum of Art, Exh. Cat. 2006) 51 cat. no. 64.
A. Caubet, Zervos et l’Art des Cyclades (Museum Zervos, France, June 24- November 15, 2011), p. 50, no. 33.