A good-sized Etruscan oinochoe. The elegant vessel has a trefoil-shaped mouth and profiled strap handle and is formed of a light brown impasto clay with red slip.
 
Etruscan Caeretan Italy: circa 625 - 600 BC.
 
Very fine condition: Complete and intact.
Height 28.2 cms (11.1 ins)
 
Provenance: Ex French collection, acquired in 1997 from Pierre-Eric Becker, Cannes, with copy of the invoice from 1997.
 
Cf. for example F. Knauss - J. Gebauer (eds.), Die Etrusker von Villanova bis Rom. Exhibition Munich (2015), page 88 fig. 3.81; p. 356 cat. 130.
 
While some potters obviously tried to give the impasto a surface that was as black as possible by firing it, reminiscent of valuable metal vessels, a workshop in Cerveteri aimed for a bright red colour (Die Etrusker von Villanova bis Rom; page 89).
 
Cerveteri is a comune in the Italian region of Lazio. Known by the ancient Romans as Caere, and previously by the Etruscans as Caisra or Cisra. It is the site of the ancient Etruscan city which was one of the most important Etruscan cities with an area more than 15 times larger than today's town.