Pre-Achaemenid Silver Phiale Mesomphalos, 5th-4th Century B.C
Conservation: Some restoration
Material: Silver
Dimensions: 29.5 cm wide
Provenance: From an important North London collection, formed 1980.UK private collection; Acquired at auction, UK, February 2023
Price:
4000€
This silver drinking vessel is conventionally known as a phiale, an ancient Greek term for any wide, shallow bowl. It has a carinated or fluted shoulder and an outward-turned rim. In the centre of the bowl is a raised projection, often referred to by the Greek term omphalos, surrounded by 16 tongue-shaped depressions. Between the depressions are deep, rounded lobes, or gadroons, and between these gadroons are smaller rounded lobes. This phiale has pyriform panels and a grooved rim with lotus plant motifs.
