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Rare Juglet Showing Potter at his Wheel
Circa 200-275 AD
Description: Extremely rare Tunisian red slip ware juglet with moulded appliques in relief depicting an extremely rare scene of a potter at his wheel and a mythological or circus scene on the reverse. The vessel is pear-shaped (Hayes type 171) with a narrow splayed mouth and small foot offset from the body. On the widest portion of the jug is a curved handle modeled in the form of a splayed leaf. Two separate scenes are illustrated on the vessel flanked and separated by three palm leaves. Arched above each scene is a decorated wreath.
One scene depicts a potter in profile sitting on a stool at his wheel shaping a vessel. His head is bent downward in concentration, his left foot on the peddle, right hand cupping the wheel-made vase wile the left manipulates the mouth. His hair is pulled back and he wears a skirted tunic cinched with a belt. The second scene depicts a naked figure with hands tied behind the back atop a bull kneeling on his front legs to throw the rider before he mauls the figure to death. The rider’s face is worn, though a thick curly hairstyle is apparent, and the details of the body are stylized. The bull’s face is in profile and detailed with one eye, brow and nose in relief. Only the left front and hind legs are visible with indication of hooves. The creature’s hind end is raised and peaked with a short, curly tail. Between the two scenes and the mouth of the jug are two lightly incised, concentric lines.
An elegantly shaped vessel decorated with unique subject matter and good detail. While there are a handful of similar vessels in Europe, mostly in museum collections, depicting a potter at work, this is the only example of the type currently known to be in North America with the exception of a similar example in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Height: 7.25 in. (18 cm)
Condition: Professionally repaired and conserved.
Provenance: Formerly a British property.
Reference: See Pompeii, Life in a Roman Town (Ciarallo & DeCarolis), no. 178 for a painted wall fragment depicting a potter in his workshop. Very few examples of this subject are known in redware. See a very similar jug with this same rare depiction of a potter at his wheel in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, no. 1983.515.
Background: There is a story in Graeco-Roman mythology of Dirce, the wife of Lycus, being tied to a bull by her vengeful step-children, and eventually trampled to death by the enraged creature. The children, were angered by Dirce’s cruel treatment of their mother, Antiope, Lycus’s ex-wife. Most often Dirce is depicted in the nude and tied to either the creatures horns or back.
Price: $ 4,500
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