Featured What is this and how was it used?

Discussion in 'Antique Discussion' started by hamptonauction, Nov 17, 2019.

  1. hamptonauction

    hamptonauction Well-Known Member

    The dome measures 8 inches (20.3 cm) diameter, weighs 7 pounds (3.2kg) and is made out of bronze and gilded. There are 4 figures 2 of each shown in photos they oppose each other. I also have another one that is the same but measures 7 3/4" in diameter, but the figures are different.
    The green corrosion on the inside came from whatever it was attached to, 6 places equally spaced as seen in the photo.
    Thank you for looking. Andy

    lead vessel 1.jpg
    lead vessel 2.jpg
    lead vessel 3.jpg
    lead vessel 4.jpg
    lead vessel 5.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2019
  2. hamptonauction

    hamptonauction Well-Known Member

    Forgot to mention, they sound like a pleasant-sounding bell when struck.
     
  3. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    upload_2019-11-17_15-45-29.jpeg

    maybe Silenus....or Bacchus .... wine bowl ??
     
  4. hamptonauction

    hamptonauction Well-Known Member

    Thanks, KOMO, I wasn't able to find the figure, that's an excellent match.
     
  5. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Yes, Bacchus on one side & a female follower, a bacchante, on the other. Each is flanked by a type of staff associated with the wine god's rites called a thyrsus. Not sure what those things garlanded below them are meant to be.
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2019
  6. hamptonauction

    hamptonauction Well-Known Member

    Thank you for the info Bronwen. I'm taking photos of the other bowl, I'll be posting them shortly.
     
  7. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    more pine cones.....perhaps.
     
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  8. hamptonauction

    hamptonauction Well-Known Member

    Here are photos of the second bowl.

    vessel 1.jpg
    vessel 2.jpg
    vessel 3.jpg
    vessel 4.jpg
    vessel 5.jpg vessel 6.jpg
     
  9. shallow_ocean_spectre

    shallow_ocean_spectre fine.books' bumping squirrel

    Not to sound too much like Cream's "White Room," but Wow. Wow.


    @hamptonauction - These are clearly old and far from perfect. Why don't you just send them to me, and I'll dispose of them for you. I'll send you some nice shiny new Corelle bowls to replace them.
    .
     
  10. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    I'm torn between:
    • Dried fish
    • Chili peppers
    • Christmas ornaments
     
  11. Bev aka thelmasstuff

    Bev aka thelmasstuff Colored pencil artist extraordinaire ;)

    That last image looks like she's working on her laptop
     
  12. Bev aka thelmasstuff

    Bev aka thelmasstuff Colored pencil artist extraordinaire ;)

    The first bowl looks more like the Green Man with pine cones, not Bacchus with grapes
     
  13. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    I'm still thinking about this one. The birds I do not understand at all. The other figures are all playing musical instruments, stringed & percussion, & some are dancing as well, all consistent with the idea of a Bacchic revel. Many of them would be generically termed 'Pompeiian figures' for the dancing maenads on the walls of the buried cities.
     
  14. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    The thyrsi have pine cone heads.
     
  15. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    My preliminary assessment is that they ring false. Is the casting of the second one really so poor compared with the first? Or is it the photos? Are they stable when sitting? Is the interior of the second one oxidized in the same way?
     
    kyratango and Christmasjoy like this.
  16. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    It actually looks like Psyche working on a laptop, unless those bits that look like her characteristic squared off wings are really the end of her scarf. Believe it is another one of those weirdly squared off lyre/harp type instruments some of the others are playing.
     
    kyratango and Christmasjoy like this.
  17. hamptonauction

    hamptonauction Well-Known Member

    Thank you, Bronwen. Yes, the quality of the second vessel is not as sharp as the first one. I took more pictures to answer your questions and yes they sit flat, the 1st one is more stable than the 2nd one which is a little wobbly.

    vessel 2 3.jpg
    vessel 2 2.jpg
    vessel 2 1.jpg
     
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  18. shallow_ocean_spectre

    shallow_ocean_spectre fine.books' bumping squirrel

    @Bronwen - If this were Psyche, I'd agree that the object was a laptop computer; it's well-known that Cupid often cursed her addiction to Skyrim, although I believe that it might actually be Euterpe, playing a Phorminx:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorminx


    [​IMG]

    (Larger than a Threeminx, but smaller than a Fiveminx.)
    .
     
  19. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Your phorminx player meets the conventions for Sappho, here in a neoclassical (Gibson) version:

    Cupid wounding Sappho Gibson.jpg

    Euterpe's traditional instrument is the double flute or other woodwind. Thorvaldsen's version:

    Euterpe Thorvaldsen.jpg
    Being associated with Apollo, the Muses usually wear laurel wreaths, not the sakkos that binds the hair of Sappho, but if the phorminxist is a Muse, she would be Erato:

    Erato Roman sarcophagus.jpg

    This is just stuff I know off the top of my head. Still pondering the second bowl. It looks like 2 different casts of characters of 3 each. The reveling bacchantes/maenads & some Persian looking men serenading birds, whom I do not recognize.
     
    Any Jewelry and i need help like this.
  20. i need help

    i need help Moderator Moderator

    33A8FEA7-9674-4767-83D8-75FD6536FE1C.jpeg
    What is here? It’s the side with the woman’s face.
     
    Bronwen, Any Jewelry and kyratango like this.
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