Decorative Bronze Amphora

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On offer is an amphora, an ancient Greek form. Such two-handled pots had a narrow neck accessing a larger bag-shape … Read more On offer is an amphora, an ancient Greek form. Such two-handled pots had a narrow neck accessing a larger bag-shape body. So, if you wanted to ship grains from your vast estates in Sicily to your villa in Rome a few millennia ago, your minions would have used amphora vessels—likewise to haul and store your supplies of wine and oil.
Amphorae were typically made on a potter's wheel from widely available clay, but those crafted in bronze, as was this contemporary decorative piece, were premium versions brought out for sumptuous drinking parties or “Symposia”—from which our term “symposium” derives, often denoting similar activity to this day.
They were frequently given as gifts of thanks to the gods at sanctuaries and temples, not to mention deployed as funerial vessels, just as today. Early pieces from the Archaic Period often featured geometric surface designs, like those displayed on this amphora’s weathered surface.
While no such hard duty was imposed on this small reproduction, it carries a textured aged surface, as if unearthed after eons. And when it’s set in an airy, sunlit space of neutral hues, nubby textures and bleached out woods, the timeless atmosphere this decorative accessory contributes is like a one-way ticket to the Greek isles. Add in an olive branch and you're halfway there. Yassou!
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