LOT 0222

Byzantine Bronze Oil Lamp with Chain and Chi Rho

CIRCA 5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

15 3/4 in. (1.08 kg, 40 cm).

With a carinated, round body and long, narrow nozzle with a flaring finial, a scalloped rim around the circular wick hole; small circular filling hole with a hinged, domed lid; the elaborate trumpet-shaped handle with a hexagonal lotus flower finial with knops, and a raised Chi Rho at the forward edge; looped suspension chain with a hook, and a square socket at the base to accommodate a stand pricket.

Private collection, Stortford, England, 1982.
with Christie's, New York, 9 June 2011, no.203.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13194-250130.

Exhibited at the Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 4th March 2026-7th June 2026; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefacts on display.

Cf. similar specimens in Morigi Govi, Vitali, D. (eds.), Il Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna, Imola, 1982, p.209; Dalton, O.M., A guide to the Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, London, 1903, p.20, fig.15; Bailey, D.M., A catalogue of the lamps in the British Museum, IV, Lamps of metal and stone, and lampstands, London, 1996, no.Q3834; for the general shape see Vermeule, C.C., Comstock, M.B., Sculpture in stone and bronze, Boston, 1988, no.113.

These lamps were produced in the Eastern Mediterranean, possibly in more than one centre (one was certainly in Syracuse, Benevento, another probably in Asia Minor, but some specimens come from Rome and Constantinople).