Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Collector · Donor

Toby O'Brien Hubbard

Wing Commander Toby O'Brien Hubbard

d. 1962 · United Kingdom

Wing Commander at Kyrenia who gave the Cyprus Museum the amphora that bears his name; his collection followed by bequest in 1962 and by gift from his heirs in 1963.

Biography

The painted amphora that Cypriot archaeology calls the Hubbard amphora is named for Wing Commander O'Brien Hubbard of Kyrenia. In 1937 Porphyrios Dikaios published it as "recently presented to the Cyprus Museum" by Hubbard, "who saved it from the hands of illicit diggers and dealers". Dikaios had traced large-scale looting of Iron Age cemeteries in the Famagusta district and concluded that the vase probably came from Vartivounas near Platani2. Karageorghis gives its inventory number as 1938/XI-2/33.

Hubbard was also a client of the licensed Famagusta dealer George Basil Palma. Merrillees, reading the Department of Antiquities file for 1937-38, says that Palma's clients "included Wing Commander Toby O'Brien Hubbard in Kyrenia"; what he bought is not stated1.

By 1962 Hubbard had bequeathed a Mycenaean amphoroid krater with octopus decoration and a Bichrome IV tripod jar to the Cyprus Museum5. In 1963 his heirs gave the rest of the collection: Early Bronze Age Red Polished and Black Polished vessels and a plank idol, spindle whorls, Iron Age vases, an Attic black-figure kylix, a limestone head of a youth, and 706 coins4,6.

Life and work

  1. 1936–1937
    Presented the painted Iron Age amphora later named after him to the Cyprus Museum, having (in Dikaios's words) saved it from illicit diggers and dealers. Dikaios published it in BSA 37 (session 1936-37).

    NicosiaDikaios 1937Karageorghis 1989, p. 77

  2. 1937
    Listed in Department of Antiquities file 24/37 among the clients of the licensed dealer George Basil Palma, Famagusta.

    FamagustaMerrillees 2014, p. 10

  3. 1962
    Bequeathed a Mycenaean amphoroid krater with octopus decoration (inv. 1962/V-31/1) and a Bichrome IV tripod jar (1962/V-31/2) to the Cyprus Museum.

    NicosiaKarageorghis 1963, pp. 6-7

  4. 1963
    His heirs (unnamed) presented the 'Hubbard collection' to the Cyprus Museum: Early Bronze Age Red/Black Polished pottery and idols (RP plank idol 1963/IV-20/12, bird-shaped Black Polished jug 1963/IV-20/30), spindle whorls, Iron Age vases (incl. a free-field White Painted jug 1963/IV-20/60, an Attic black-figure kylix 1963/IV-20/84), a limestone youth's head (1963/IV-20/93), a White Painted V animal-shaped rhyton (1963/IV-20/43) and a series of 706 coins.

    NicosiaNicolaou 1966Karageorghis 1964

Connections

3 people
George Basil PalmaAnne Destrooper-GeorgiadesPorphyrios DikaiosToby O'Brien Hubbard
Sales & giftsScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • The 'Hubbard' amphora, White Painted ware, figured frieze (woman drinking through a straw, sphinx, dancers, lyre-player)

    From Platani, probably Vartivounas cemeteryCyprus Museum, Nicosia 1938/XI-2/31936–1938Karageorghis 1989, p. 77Dikaios 1937

  • Mycenaean amphoroid krater with octopus decoration

    Cyprus Museum, Nicosia 1962/V-31/11962Karageorghis 1963, p. 6

  • Bichrome IV tripod jar with double handles ending in animal heads

    Cyprus Museum, Nicosia 1962/V-31/21962Karageorghis 1963, p. 7

  • Limestone head of a youth with a wreath

    Cyprus Museum, Nicosia 1963/IV-20/931963Karageorghis 1964, p. 16

  • Red Polished plank-shaped idol

    Cyprus Museum, Nicosia 1963/IV-20/121963Nicolaou 1966

  • Coin series (706 coins, Cypriot and foreign); the 96 city-kingdom coins and a 1518 Nicosia hoard were later published by Destrooper-Georgiades (2010) and Metcalf (1995)

    Cyprus Museum, Nicosia1963Nicolaou 1966

On Ancient Cyprus

3 pages

Sources

  1. 1.Robert Stuart Merrillees (2014). “George Basil Palma, Chemist and Collector of Cypriote Antiquities in Famagusta, Cyprus, in the 20th Century A.D.”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44. Online
  2. 2.P. Dikaios (1937). “An Iron Age Painted Amphora in the Cyprus Museum”. Annual of the British School at Athens 37, 56-72.
  3. 3.V. Karageorghis (1989). The Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.
  4. 4.K. Nicolaou (1966). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1961-66”. Archaeological Reports 12, 27-43. Online
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (1963). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1962”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 87.
  6. 6.V. Karageorghis (1964). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1963”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 88.
  7. 7.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (1979). Cyprus BC. 7000 years of history. London, British Museum.