Perfume Bottle Aryballos

Perfume bottle (aryballos) with lion-head mouth, attributed to the Chigi Painter

Greek, Protocorinthian, about 640 BC
Made in Corinth, Greece; said to be from Thebes, Greece

The 'Macmillan aryballos'

Despite its tiny size, the main figure scene on this perfume bottle displays no fewer than seventeen fully-armed warriors. They are locked in combat, thrusting their spears, jostling for position, or falling to the ground. Each warrior is armed with plumed helmet, spear and blazoned shield. Some are realistically streaked with blood. Two further figure scenes below show a horse-race and a hare-hunt. The upper part of the vase takes the form of a lion's head, its mouth open to display rows of fearsome teeth and a red tongue.

In the seventh century BC, Corinth took the lead in the development of fine painted pottery. It specialized in the production of small perfume vessels covered with a dense and intricate network of animals and flowers. This style, known as Protocorinthian, is characterized by designs in silhouette with added colour and incision. It is the earliest use of the black-figure technique, which was to dominate the production of fine painted pottery throughout the Greek world until the end of the sixth century BC.

The bottle takes its name from a former owner, Malcolm Macmillan, who gave it to The British Museum in 1889.

L. Burn, The British Museum book of Gre (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)

J. Boardman, Early Greek vase painting: 11t (London, Thames and Hudson, 1998)

D. Williams, Greek vases (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)


http://www.britishmuseum.org/
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/p/perfume_bottle_aryballos.aspx

Greek Aryballos

GREEK ARYBALLOS
No Commercial
period: VIth century B.C.
origin: Corinth
piece: 0039A

Ceramic of yellowish clay, with geometric design consisting of concentric circles with lines joining them at the neck. On the recipient we find two owls in black and red, as an allusion or symbol of Athens, with floral motives.

http://www.museudelperfum.com/
http://www.museudelperfum.com/ficha.php?lang=en&pieza=0039A

African Chair

Gunta Stölzl and Marcel Breuer, African Chair, 1921

Unique Sliver Sled

Spode Centre Piece

Wonderful Spode China centre piece with swan handles

Persia Nishapur Glazed Vase

Botanical Study From Delphini Manuscripts

Medieval Manuscripts

The collection of medieval manuscripts is one of the finest of any collection of illuminated ones in Oxford outside the Bodleian Library and includes the 13th century Lectionary produced for the convent of Dominican Nuns zum heiligen Kreuz, Regensburg (MS 49) and the 15th century French book of hours (MS 39), exquisitely illuminated with miniatures by the Master of the Duke of Bedford.


The collection consists of seventy-one Western, five Greek and thirteen Oriental manuscripts, together with a number of fragments. Most are liturgical and devotional; books of hours, missals, breviaries, lectionaries and ordinals. They were given by Victorian benefactors who were influenced by the ideals of John Keble and the Oxford Movement and associated with the College. Included are the bequests of Rev. Charles Edward Brooke who had inherited the liturgical books and manuscripts collected by his brother Sir Thomas Brooke, one of the great bibliophiles of the 19th century, and of Rev. Dr Henry Parry Liddon, one of the founder members of Keble College.



The history of the collection is fully described by Malcolm Parkes in the introduction to his catalogue: The medieval manuscripts of Keble College Oxford: a descriptive catalogue with summary descriptions of the Greek and Oriental manuscripts. London, Scolar Press, 1979.




http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/about/library/medieval-manuscripts