LOT 0213

Byzantine Bronze Oil Lamp

6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

5 3/8 in. (376 grams, 13.7 cm).

Comprising: a squat body and large nozzle with shallow socketed rim, hinged lid to filler-hole with striped pattern, handle formed with lobed cross and loop to rear, annular foot.

From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.

Cf. Gökalp, Z.D., ‘Some examples of Byzantine bronze lamps in Turkish Museums’ in Actes du 1er Congres International d’etudes sur le Luminaire Antique (Nyon-Geneve, 29.IX-4.X.2003), Monographies Instrumentum 31, (2005), pp.69-71, fig.7, pl.30; Lafli, E., Buora, M., 'Roman, Early Byzantine and Islamic Bronze Lamps from Southern Anatolia' in Archiv Orientalni, 82, 2014, pp.431-458, pls.1 no.4 and pl.2 no.2, for nearly identical specimens.

The great success of this type of lamp in the Eastern Roman Empire brought about the establishment of several production centres, as can be confirmed by the frequent appearance of some of the details, e.g., the shape of the lid or of the cross and the length of the spout. Despite their wide distribution across Asia Minor, Greece and the Balkan Peninsula, these lamps also spread throughout Syria and reached Egypt, Morocco and even central Europe.