Fragment Completes Ancient Cup

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28766, 11 December 1958, Page 12

Fragment Completes Ancient Cup

A fantastic piece of archaeological sleuthing has reunited a small fragment of ancient Greek pottery with the cup from which it came. The now complete exhibit is part of the collection in the classics department of the University of Canterbury. The cup is nearly 2500 years old.

The modern history of the cup is not known. It was added to the university collection within the last 10 years, and a masterly piece of “faking” filled in the small gap. Then the cup was described and the missing fragment was

noted. Sir John Beazley, Lincoln professor of classical art and archaeology at the University of Oxford, picked up the reference and identified the missing piece as one in his possession. Two years ago the cup was sent to the British Museum, and now it has been returned with the original missing piece restored. An official description of the cup is as follows: “A drinking cup of kylix (labelled C.U.C. 17 in the Can-| terbury University collection), an Attic red figure painted in the first half of the sth century B.C. | by the ‘Foundry Painter.’ The in-

terior picture is a man reclining on a couch and drinking from a cup similar to this one. In front of him is a small table with a wine jar. Behind him hangs a basket in which he probably brought his food to the party His staff rests against the couch The picture is surrounded by a circular ‘meander’ border.” In the illustration above, some of the cracks where the cup was earlier reconstructed can be seen ifiut the line of the recently addled fragment is not clear. It is the part containing the man’s left elbow and the bulge on the I leg of the couch.