Red-figure Lecanis in the style of the Meidias painter, with lid, Attic circa 410 BC, clay, h. 13 cm, diameter 25 cm. On the lid of this well-preserved vase five women are depicted in familiar company: Two seated ladies are served by three girls offering small boxes (cistae) with patterned ribbons. All the figures are dressed alike, wearing belted chitones and hair ribbons (sphendones); only the servant looking to the left wears a jacket, to vary the appearance somewhat. The scene is set in the open air, as evidenced not only by the wreath of leaves (ivy?) lying casually on the ground, but also by a series of lightly incised wavy bands that depict the terrain. The arrangement of the figures is such that the seated ladies are best viewed vertically and almost level with the handles. On each side of the vessel between the ribbon handles with double eyelet an extraordinary row of six standing palmettes, connected by spiral tendrils, below and above - on the overhanging rim of the lid - bordered by egg spire frieze. Such a frieze band also surrounds the base of the stemmed handle. Well preserved varnish, in some places colored orange by misfiring. Vessel and lid fully assembled, seams painted over. Four pairs of carefully turned holes in the lid attest to an antique repair. Dr. Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter has determined that this lecanis must be by the same hand as the slightly smaller one in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, inv. no. 1966.716 (former Beazley Collection), assigned by J.D. Beazely to the type of the Meidias painter (ARV2 1327, 83, and 1690: para. 478). Their overall shape and decoration are virtually identical. In particular, they have the same unusual palmette frieze in the handle area on each side, framed by egg ornament. The Oxford lecanis is published s. R.W. Hamilton et al, Select Exhibition of Sir John and Lady Beazley's Gifts to the Ashmolean Museum 1912-1966 (Oxford 1967) 81 no. 278 and pl. 42. Provenance: Former Dobiashofsky, Bern, Auction 101, November 9-12, 2005, Lot 3091. Former Swiss Private Collection. Galerie Jean-David Cahn, Basel. 17.12.2010, private collection, Germany. Art-Loss Register Certificate from 1.12.2005 Notes Antiquities, part II.