A Greek and Roman Treasury: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ...

20-24. Five silver bowls.
20. Silver phiale. Greek, sixth century B.C.
Height 4.8 cm; diameter 17.0 cm; weight
271 grams. Fletcher Fund, 1968 (68.11.64)
21. Silver phiale. Greek, sixth century B.C.
Height 4.7 cm; diameter 17.4-17.65 cm;
weight 302.3 grams. Purchase, Anonymous
Gift, 1970 (1970.11.16)
While not an exact pair, these two libation
bowls are obviously contemporary and the
work of the same silversmith. Both, moreover,
share a similar lightly engraved monogram
in the hollow of the omphalos. In
terms of style they are similar to the phialai
of the so-called Achaemenian type (nos. 28
and 29) illustrated on the opposite page.
All four have nine lobes alternating with
nine stylized lotuses.
22. Silver phiale. Greek, sixth century B.C.
Height 4.5 cm; diameter 14.6 cm; weight
265 grams. Purchase, Rogers Fund, Anonymous
Gift, and Halina and John Klejman
Gift, 1969 (69.11.10)
The seventy-six tongues on the outside of
the lower part of the bowl are chased, as are
the three carinations on the shoulder.
23. Silver wine cup. Greek, sixth century
B.C. Height 4.9 cm; diameter 10.85 cm;
weight 161 grams. Purchase, Anonymous
Gift, 1967 (67.11.17)
The decoration, limited to the outside, is
chased. It consists of a sixteen-petalled rosette
surrounded by a circle of beading on
the bottom and eighty-two tongues on the
convex part of the bowl; above the flutes,
just below the offset lip, is a circle of
kymatia and eggs. The rosette is a forerunner
of the similar ones on the bottoms of
nos. 75, 78, and 79.
24. Silver phiale. Greek, sixth century B.C.
Height 4.1 cm; diameter 14.9-15.1 cm;
weight 206.9 grams. Purchase, Rogers
Fund, Anonymous Gift, and Halina and
John Klejman Gift, 1968 (68.11.9)
As on no. 22 the eighty-seven tongues on
the outside are chased, and there is an
engraved circle around the depression of the
omphalos. In addition, however, this phiale
has thirty-eightongues chased on the
inside, surrounding the omphalos, the
underside of which has incised letters (Alik)
that may be the beginning of a Greek name,
and a complex monogram.
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