Small Bronze? Oriental Jug

Hi all
Picked this up at a local sale the other day and no idea what I have.
Anyone have any ideas as to its origins, age and material.
It measures 10cm tall

 

It's an askos shaped jug. Probably brass or patinated bronze, the kind of thing picked up on a 19th century grand tour and later widely reproduced. Yours does look to have some age, someone else might be able to help you further.

https://www.tooveys.com/lots/193983/a-continental-bronze-askos-style-jug/

 

Great thanks for the info

 

It is lovely, Brian. As Ce said, it is patinated.
I would guess 1970s or thereabouts, there is not enough wear to the base to be antique. Doesn't matter, it is very attractive as it is, and the detail on the lion is nice.

 

Looking it up, I see that 'askos' comes from a word for wine skin & the jugs themselves were used for wine or oil. The wine connection explains the handle: it is a pantheress, the companion animal of the wine god Dionysus.

 

Great thanks, so vintage rather than antique but like you say a nice thing all the same

 

Maybe the maker didn't know it was meant to be a pantheress? It has manes, close to the neck and head like the European lion had. European lions didn't have enormous manes like the African lion.

 

The critter looks conspicuously female to me, regardless of the fur at the neck. I'm guessing this is a reproduction of a Greek vessel. Greek artisans may not have had an entirely clear idea of what a panther looked like.

 

Here's another:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324243715949

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/33521979017

 

Yes, another female with manes. A feline equivalent of the lady with the beard?
That one looks antique to me and it is more detailed. So worth more than Brian's.

For the second link I get the ebay "we've looked everywhere but, etc" message.

 

These other 3 we've found all have the olive branch decoration, presumably for the connection with oil, while Brian's jug is nearly bare. Don't know what this means for age/origin.

 

I do too, sorry about that. It is just like the other one on eBay & the one sold by Toovey's, with the seller speculating that the handle is the she-wolf that raised Romulus & Remus.

 

One in compensation, heavily patinated, still with olive branches:

https://becksantiques.com/product/roman-style-bronze-askos-grand-tour-souvenir/

 

Possible I suppose. Makers are very good at getting animals and plants wrong, and it is an animal that is clearly suckling.

I doubt it is as old as they say.

 

This is what the other eBay one looked like. They were asking $350.

 

It was my immediate reaction to an obviously female animal. Then I looked at it. When I learned the shape of the vessel is based on the shape of a wine skin, the pantheress of Dionysus became obvious. I wear a ring with a tiny bull's eye agate engraved with a teeny tiny pantheress with a thyrsus (the staff of Dionysus & his revelers) over her shoulder.

 

Here's an 'original' reproduction, I'm not convinced the one on ebay is antique (the 1st working link, not the one in the cross post which does look older).

 

That one has age, although I can't see the base.

Oh, lovely.

 

typical Mamma Lupa. well known from the founding myth of Rome feeding Romulus and Remus.