Etruscan Bronze Wine Strainer

$656.74

An Ancient Etruscan cast bronze wine strainer featuring a long, flat handle with a hole for suspension to the top, and a separately worked deep cavity with punched holes in the centre of a shallow, wide bowl. A wide, slightly-incurved rim surrounds the full bowl. The tiny holes piercing the central part of the bowl form a delicate aesthetically pleasant decorative pattern, as such strainers were usually stored on kitchen walls.

Date: Circa 5th-1st Century BC.
Provenance: Ex. Gorny & Mosh, auction 248, lot 200, 3Oth June 2017.
Condition: Fine, part of the handle missing. Nice olive-green and brown patination covering the surface. Professionally restored.

SOLD

SKU: FP-139 Category: Tag:

Wine strainers were part of the group of containers intended for the table, a necessary accessory of a refined drinking service, vasa potoria. This strainer would have been used to filter wine from sediments and dregs. Bronze strainers were also used in kitchenware, in the preparation of sauces. Strainers have been largely recovered in graves, as part of the feasting and drinking equipment which accompanied the social Etruscan and Roman elite to the next world.  Rituals related to wine were already present in Etruria since the end of the Bronze Age. However, contact with Greek culture marked a profound evolution. Wine became more deeply linked to the religious dimension, used collectively in celebrations to the gods and in funeral ceremonies. Wine became quickly the main character of social rituals, banquets and symposia.

Weight 100 g
Dimensions L 22.5 x W 12 cm
Culture

Metal

Region

Reference: For similar, see the British Museum, London, Item 1824,0489.86