Sims Reed Rare Books×

Die Schaale des Kodros

Braun, Emil

Gotha. 1843
Sold
Braun's privately printed work on the Codrus Cup.

The famous Codrus Cup (Die Schaale von Kodros of the title) was first excavated in the Etruscan necropolis at Vulci in 1840. Recognised immediately as important - indeed the artist responsible is now known as the Codrus Painter - it passed through the hands of a dealer named Basseggio before resale to the collector Palagi with the help of Braun, the secretary of the German Institute at Rome (the Prussian museum was also keen to purchase the cup but was unable to raise the required funds in time). After restoration and cleaning, the cup was displayed in the Gabinetto del Palagi in Turin before the vitrine in which it was displayed was knocked over and the cup was shattered requiring further restoration. The cup, described as 'unique of its kind' and 'worthy of a prestigious place in the history of Greek vase-painting' remains in Italy, in Bologna.

'One of the first vases that sparked scholarly interest was the one after which the Codrus Painter was first named ... That cup [the cup depicted in Braun's work] received a three-page commentary in Eduard Gerhard's pioneering work on vases of Etruscan origin (1858), in which he not only described and interpreted the scenes but, most importantly, provided an accurate reading of the names inscribed in the tondo, visible only after the vase was cleaned.' (Amalia Avridou writing in 'The Codrus Painter: Iconography and Reception of Athenian Vases in the Age of Pericles').

Braun's full title reads as follows: 'Die Schaale des Kodros Herausgegeben und den Herren. C. Göttling (Seinem Freund), F. Jacobis (Dem Ruhmesträger seiner Vaterstadt), F., CH. F. Rost (Seinem Lehrer im Griechischen), zugeeignet von Emil Braun'.
Large folio. (565 x 500 mm). Printed title, leaf of text and two large engraved colour plates by Schwechten after Eduard Ratti, printed recto only and with guardleaves. Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, title gilt to spine.
#43158

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