Greek - Ancient Pottery for Sale

Although some ancient Greek pottery was intended for decoration or for presentation, the majority was made for everyday use, mainly in the preparation and serving of food and drink, or for the bath, and can be divided in four broad categories - storage and transport vessels, mixing vessels, jugs and cups and vases for oils, perfumes and cosmetics. Most surviving Greek pottery consists of drinking vessels such as amphorae, kraters (bowls for mixing wine and water), hydria (water jars), libation bowls, jugs and cups. Miniatures were also produced in large numbers, mainly for use as offerings at temples.

Near-Choice Cypriot Bulls-Eye Jug A very nice size for this type of vessel! Medium-sized pottery pouring jug from ancient Cyprus, from the Cypro-Geometric Period, ca 1050 to 750 BC. Buff terracotta... $1,295.00

Rare Cypriot Black-Slip Oinochoe Looking very "Classic" Greek in form, but made in ancient Cyprus, from the Cypro-Geometric Period, ca 1050 to 750 BC. Pottery oinochoe with trefoil spout, flared foot... $995.00

Cypriot Red-Polished Ware Incised Cup Another fine, early vessel from ancient Cyprus, dating to the Early Cypriot Phase, ca 1600 to 1200 BC. Small redware pottery cup incised with extensive geometric pattern, $395.00

Greek Corinthian Pottery Trefoil Oinochoe One of the most beautiful forms to ever come out of Greece! Manufactured in Corinth - in antiquity it was a city-state - on the Isthmus of Corinth, southwest of... $1,495.00

Ancient Greek Attic Blackware Skyphos Lovely! Very classic ancient Greek pottery wine cup, manufactured in Athens at the height of the Classical period - Ca 440 to 420 BC. Of typical form with small... $895.00 SOLD

Greek Gnathian Skyphos Grape Vine Pattern Magna Graecia / Apulia, Gnathia. ca. 350 B.C. Squat body skyphos with wide foot and upturned handles; painted around body of cup is a pattern of repeating grapevines... $995.00

Graceful Greek Gnathian Prochous The form is pure grace! From the ancient Greek colony of Apulia, Gnathian style, ca. 325 BC, a pouring vessel called a prochous, used to pour olive oil at the dinner... $1,295.00

Greek Terracotta Maskette Probably from ancient Cyprus, ca 5th century BC. Simple terracotta maskette of a bearded male with oval face, rounded eyes and pursed lips. Similar in style and... $350.00 SOLD

Greek Blackware Pottery Kyathos From ancient Greece, Magna Graecia, ca. 325 BC. Blackware pottery Kyathos / dipper; with low foot, single handle and cup-like body. $250.00 $212.50 SOLD

Classic Greek Apulian Owl Skyphos Perhaps the single most popular of all Apulian Greek antiquities - and getting harder to find! From southeastern Italy, ca 340 to 325 BC, ancient pottery... $1,100.00

The painted decoration of ancient Greek pottery has become the primary source of information about the development of Greek pictorial art. Made in a variety of sizes and shapes, according to its intended use - large vessels were used for storage and transportation of liquids (wine, olive oil, water), while smaller pots were used for perfumes and unguents. The earliest style, known as the Geometric style (ca. 1000 – 700 B.C.), features geometric patterns and, eventually, narrative scenes with stylized figures. From the late 8th to the early 7th century, a growing Eastern influence resulted in the “Orientalizing” of motifs (e.g., sphinx, griffin), notably in pieces made in Corinth (ca. 700 B.C.), where painters developed black-figure vases. Athenians adopted both the black-figure and red-figure style, and became the dominant manufacturers of Greek pottery. By the 4th century the figured decoration of pottery had declined, and by the end of the century it had died out in Athens.