Circa 340-320 BC, Magna Graecia, Southern Italy, Ignazia An attractive blackware pottery oinchoe with trefoil spout decorated in the Gnathian technique with fugitive red, white, and yellow pigments - depicting a lovely grapevine pattern around the lower shoulder along with a band of white ovolo surrounded by incised outlines and punctuated with white dots, followed by a band of red, yellow, and white lozenge motifs, and finally a yellow/white dotted band. Gnathia ware is named for the site where it was first discovered, the Apulian site of Egnathia. The black glaze ware is traditionally decorated with floral or foliage motifs such as the grapevines in this example in red, white, or yellow hues. Scholars believe that its production most likely was centred around Taras, with primary workshops in Egnathia and Canosa. The quantity and quality of Greek colonial Apulian potters increased significantly following the Peloponnesian War when Attic exports dramatically decreased. Apulian artistry demonstrates influences of Ionian (Athenian, Attic) conventions, as well as Doric (western colonial Greek) styles, with a palpable native Italian aesthetic. For similar see The Archaeological Museum of Bologna. Size: L:185mm / W:105mm; 390g Provenance: Property of a central London Gallery; formerly in a South English estate collection; acquired in the 1990s from Andre de Munter, Brussels, Belgium; previously in an old European collection.