Jan., 191 2. Antiquities from Boscoreale. 193 



The upper part of the handle has at either side a volute and a 

 long-beaked bird's head which is attached to the outer vertical edge 

 of the lip, and, in the center, a thumb-rest consisting of a leaf with 

 recurved end terminating in a small knob. The leaf is, as it were, 

 held in place by an ornamented transverse band. 



The use of birds' heads, as a transitional motive between handle 

 and mouth, occurs very frequently in metal vases of the Roman period, 

 and occasionally in other materials. 1 The examples which were known 

 up to the year 1894 may be found collected in Schreiber's Alexan- 

 drinische Toreutik. The list there given does not include any speci- 

 mens from Greece or the eastern part of the Roman Empire, with the 

 exception of two pieces in the Egyptian Museum of the Vatican, 2 

 nor any from definitely ascertained pre-Roman strata. A number 

 of examples in bronze and terra-cotta have since been found in Priene 3 

 and Pergamon, 4 but there does not appear to be sufficient external 

 evidence to establish for them a date prior to the end of the Attalid 

 kingdom. However, it has been shown by Schreiber in the above 

 mentioned work that, whatever the date of the actual vases with 

 the motive in question may be, the majority of the types of shape and 

 decoration are Greek of the Hellenistic period, that the most impor- 

 tant center of manufacture was probably Alexandria, and that it 

 is reasonable to attribute to the art of that city, which was strongly 

 influenced by the naturalistic tendency of Egyptian decoration, the 

 formation of this inorganic and un-Hellenic method of attachment. 6 



The handle widens at its lower end, forming a sort of plaque for 

 attachment with two convex sides meeting beneath in a simple pal- 

 mette between volutes. On this plaque is a relief of two game-cocks 

 confronting each other, as if about to fight. They stand on a ledge 

 which juts out sharply from the background. The treatment of 

 the relief is freely naturalistic, as in a figurine from the Athenian Ac- 

 ropolis, 6 while the group is similar to that on a nestoris from South 

 Italy, 7 and a bronze handle of advanced archaic style in the Forman 

 collection. 8 



Just above the heads of the fowls are two objects which look like 

 feathers crossing each other, but are perhaps rather to be regarded 



1 Cf. Schreiber, Alexand. Toreulik, p. 382; Jahrb. xix, Am. p. 56, No. 47, fig. 12. 

 ■ P. 438. 



• Priene, pp. 282 (fig. 295). 386 (fig. 400). 



• Conze, Abhandl. Berl. Akad. 1902, p. 10, n. 1. 



» Cf. von Bissing, Jahrb. XVIII (1903). Anz. p. 146. 



• De Ridder. Cat. des bronzes de VAcropoU, No. 539, fig. 176 («Reinach, Rip. de la slat. Vol. ii, 

 p. 775. No. s). 



7 Mayer. Roem. Mitteil. XII (1897), p. 227. fig. 14, p. 210. 



' Reinach, op. cil. Vol. iii, p. 225, No. 2. Cf. also Richardson, Am. Jour, of Archaeol. II (1898), 

 pp. 199. f., plate vi. 



