AN APULIAN RED FIGURE FISH PLATE
Circa 340-320 B.C.
Attributed to the Group of Karlsruhe 66/140, of type IVA, with two banded bream moving to the left, both decorated with black dots and two broad black stripes, as well as applied white on the tail, fins, gills, and bellies, and a spotted torpedo fish with curling tail and broad, smiling mouth. A four-petalled flower in the field, and a rosette within a border of repeated waves at the centre. The sides of the bowl also decorated with waves, 25.4cm diam, 6.3cm high, 
This comes with a thermoluminescence test report from Oxford Authentication confirming
its antiquity.
Literature: Compare an almost identical plate in a private collection in Geneva; see I. McPhee and A. D. Trendall, Greek Red-figured Fish-plates, Basel, 1987, pl. 53c, no. IVA/126, and pp. 127-130 for discussion of the group.
Provenance: Ex Frank Capra, Jr. collections acquired in the 1970s.
Footnotes: The Group of Karlsruhe 66/140 is named after a fish-plate in the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe and refers to a group of anonymous painters whose consistent and shared style indicates a coherent workshop. Their plates are characterised by an extensive use of added white on the bodies of the fish, especially on the underbelly; the specific depiction of banded bream; and the depiction of a central rosette within a border of wave-pattern.