Basse-Yutz flagons

Follow the animal forms around the flagon, then notice the red details against the metal. The maker combined a hammered copper-alloy body with separately worked decoration. Red glass and coral added colour to the surface. This flagon dates to about 420–360 BC. Its shape adapts a type of vessel associated with the Etruscan world. Objects could carry ideas about form and making between regions, while craftspeople altered those ideas in their own work. A pouring vessel became an opportunity for animals, curves and contrasting materials. It belongs to the pair known as the Basse-Yutz flagons. The Museum purchased it from Durlacher Brothers with support from several contributors. Poor documentation of the discovery limits a precise reconstruction of the original burial context. The vessel itself remains a detailed record of the workshop’s choices. Move your eye from the broad hammered body to the smaller fittings and see how the whole form holds together.