Guttus with Spout and Strainer
Guttus with Spout and Strainer
A small drinking vessel known as a ‘guttus’. It is a small container designed to fill other vessels, such as oil lamps, via its spout located on the body (which is slender and tapered on the vase in question). As its name suggests, the liquid flowed from it only in small quantities or drop by drop.
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Product Description
A small drinking vessel known as a ‘guttus’. It is a small container designed to fill other vessels, such as oil lamps, via its spout located on the body (which is slender and tapered on the vase in question). As its name suggests, the liquid flowed from it only in small quantities or drop by drop.
In order to enable the user to grasp and handle this small vessel, a double handle extends from the top of the body down to the rim, forming an angular triangular surface.
On this example, the top of the guttus also features a wide mouth that curves inwards to form a sort of funnel acting as a filter-sieve.
From an ornamental perspective, a series of vertical ribs runs at regular intervals around the entire circumference of the vase’s body. Furthermore, three bands can be seen adorning the rim, echoing the three successive rows in which the filter holes are arranged. Apart from this, the entire vase is glazed entirely in black.
Glazed during firing, this glaze indeed offers a magnificent sheen that recalls the metallic origin of the tableware that served as a source of inspiration. The vase’s very regular shape, along with the small raised ribs and the angularity of the double handle at the top, clearly and effectively imitate the art of ‘toruetics’ (metal tableware shaped by cold hammering).
The glaze covers the entire exterior of the piece, with the exception of the underside, which reveals the raw, red colour of the clay, covered with a clay slip known as miltos. The presence of this red slip is evidence supporting the attribution of the vase under consideration to a colonial workshop: through this technique, the Italic potters sought to reproduce the characteristic reddish hue of Attic terracotta.
The shape, size and technique thus allow us to date the production of this vase to Magna Graecia, during the first half of the 4th century BC.
