For size and quality this is a most exceptional vessel. - www.2dudesdesigns.com.

For size and quality this is a most exceptional vessel. No examples of the Fourth and Fifth Labours have yet appeared on British vessels, but there are several versions of the Sixth Labour, the Stymphalian Birds. In the marshy lake of Stymphalos in the Peloponnese were flocks of enormous stork-like birds. They shot at the inhabitants with their steel-tipped feathers and befouled the fields with their noxious droppings. Hercules acquired through Athena an enormous bronze rattle made by Hephaistos, and with this he scared them from their coverts, then shot them down with arrows, the tips of which were poisoned with the blood of the Hydra. The scenes on the British vessels mainly show the birds in the background of the hero holding his bow. Such an example has been found in excavations on the large rural site at Stanwick, Northants. There is only the lower half of the hero on the sherd but he is identified