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A Note on a Rattling Attic Black Glaze Cup in Dublin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
In the Classical Museum of University College, Dublin, there is a small black glaze Attic cup (inv. no. V3020; provenance unknown) belonging to the Vienna-Cup group (Plate IV, 1–4). It is 7·7 cm high and 13·8 cm in diameter (20 cm at the handles). It has been broken and repaired at some time and parts of the handles are modern, and some of the lip is restored (apparent on Plate IV, 3 and 4). It might be as well to point out that the foot is whole and has never been broken. The cup is almost wholly black, except for the insides of the handles, the outside edge and resting surface of the foot, and the centre of the foot which are all reserved (Plate IV, 1 and 2). It looks quite normal, but if one picks it up and tilts it, one hears a rattling, almost a ringing, sound from the foot which is not only hollow, but contains three small clay pellets, as revealed by an X-ray examination (Plate IV, 3 and 4). There is no vent hole.
The cup is to be dated to some time within the period 475–450 B.C. I do not know of any parallels among the Vienna-Cup group, but there is another black glaze cup in Leningrad (Hermitage B 721; Plate V, 1) which belongs to the Kalliades-Brygos group and which has a hollow foot and rattling pellets just like those on the Dublin cup. The Kalliades-Brygos group is generally dated to between 500 and 470 B.C. This would mean that the Leningrad cup is probably earlier than the Dublin example, but they both still belong to the first half of the fifth century. The relevance to the discussion of a fragmentary foot in Toronto (Royal Ontario Museum 923.13.11) from a cup of Cup-Type C painted by Skythes c. 500 B.C., is debatable. In the case of this foot there is a hollow channel around the edge as in the Dublin and Leningrad examples, but it differs from them in that there was originally a small rectangular hole in it, the left side of which is preserved (Plate V, 2, far left). The hole was apparently never closed, so that it is unlikely that the hollow held pellets as did the others, or if it did, there might have been a temporary stopper of, say, unbaked clay. The hole is a puzzle, for it seems too big to be merely a vent hole.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1970
References
1 Bloesch, H., Formen attischer Schalen von Exekias bis zum Ende des strengen Stils (Bern/Bümpliz, 1940), 139–41, pls 38–9.Google Scholar
2 ibid. Zeittafel, p. 145.
3 Information from Mr Shefton who also provided the photograph reproduced in Plate V, 1.
4 Bloesch, op. cit., 134–6, pls 1–5.
5 ibid. Zeittafel, p. 145.
6 Information from Mrs Leipen and Miss Harle who also provided the photograph reproduced in Plate V, 2. The rest of the cup is said by J. W. Graham (see n. 8) to be in the Villa Giulia Museum.
7 Bloesch, op. cit., 111–36, pls 32–6.
8 Graham, J. W., ‘Scythes Re-united,’ Royal Ontario Museum Bulletin xxv (June 1957) 14–16 Google Scholar, pl. 6 a-c. Cf. Beazley, J. D., ARV 2 83 Google Scholar, no. 8. The foot is now published, in profile, by Noble, J. V. in ‘Some Trick Greek Vases,’ Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. cxii (1968) 372 Google Scholar, fig. 4.
9 One is not wholly persuaded by Noble's explanation of the purpose of this hole, loc. cit., ‘… a hollow foot which could be filled with wine. A small rectangular hole in the foot which was used to fill the secret cavity was held closed by the host's thumb and when he passed it to his guest the wine would trickle over him.’ Indeed, Professor Bloesch points out to me that the Dublin cup is proof that this could not be so.
10 Information from Dr Firath.
11 Information concerning both these cups from Mr Shefton.
12 Information from Dr von Bothmer.
13 Noble, J. V., The Technique of Attic Painted Pottery (New York, 1966) 24.Google Scholar
14 Mr Noble has drawn my attention to this on p. 13 of his book. He tells me that he has done it himself in his own kiln.
15 Information from Professor Bloesch.
16 Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. cxii (1968) 375–78.
17 ibid. 372.
18 xi 471d: fr. 56 in Kock, CAF ii 183.
19 The Fragments of Attic Comedy ii (Leiden, 1959) 107.
20 loc. cit.
21 Schneider, K., PW xi 2 (1922) 1528–41, s.v.Google Scholar
22 Seltman, C., Wine in the Ancient World (London, 1957) 111.Google Scholar
23 Diodorus Siculus iv 3, and Philochorus in Athenaeus ii 38d.
24 Pollux vi 92.
25 Antiphanes in Athenaeus xi 486 f.; fr. 137 in CAF ii 68.
26 Diphilus Comicus in Athenaeus xi 487a; fr. 69 in CAF ii 564.
27 Athenaeus ix 408 and Pollux vi 31.
28 The μετάνιπτρον and the μετανιπτρίς were presumably interchangeable terms, but since only μετανιπτρίς is found in connexion with Zeus Soter, it might on balance be safer to use it rather than μετάνιπτρον.
29 Information from Mr Boardman and Dr von Bothmer.
30 Richter, G. M. A. and Milne, M. J., Shapes and names of Athenian Vases (New York, 1935) 29.Google Scholar