Ladle with Handle Terminating in Two Ducks' Heads

This dual-headed ladle is less well preserved in its bowl than 1954.138 and lacks “wings” on the rim, but its features have nevertheless fared better than those of 1954.138. The handle splits into two ducks at its end, perhaps so that the ladle could be suspended from the rim of a wine krater or hung from a hook or peg on a wall, as seen in representations of ladles in red-figure vase painting (1). This ladle would probably have been used in conjunction with a strainer, the customary implements used for serving wine (2). NOTES: 1. See the symposium scene on the exterior of a red-figure kylix attributed to Makron in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 20.246, with a ladle and a strainer hanging from a stand between couches of celebrants; J. R. Mertens, How to Read Greek Vases (New York, 2010) 116-20, no. 23. 2. See D. K. Hill, “Wine Ladles and Strainers from Ancient Times,” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 5 (1942): 41-55. Aimée F. Scorziello