Large Roman Terracotta Discus Lamp with Foliage

With large oval bowl and a long, slender handle, compressed into S-shape and terminating in a stylised bird’s head. 42.4 grams, 85 mm



Found near Welney, Cambridgeshire, in 1985.

Similar silver spoons (cygni), were found within a set of ten spoons (today at the British Museum with inventory nos. 1994,0408.81-90) with ownership inscriptions. The handle attachment of such spoons had some decorative profiling, and the name 'AVRVRSICINI' within the bowl was inlaid with niello. The spoons seems to have been produced by a Romano-British workshop of Late Antiquity (4th-5th centuries A.D.). The cygnus was a particular type of ligula. This type was characterised by a large, oval-shaped bowl, but was equipped, unlike the common ligula, with a shortened, recurved handle which terminated in a stylised water bird or swan's head (swan = cygnus in Latin).

With three extendable legs each topped with bust of Bacchus, his long hair collected in a crown of vine leaves and branches, wearing a panther skin exomis; the feet formed as feline paws; the middle part of the frontal leg formed as an S-curve topped with a panther's head with open jaws. 9.9 kg, 101 cm

Traces of gilding over all the whole surface, fine condition, restored, excessively rare.

Ex collection of Dr Djafari (1900-1981), Kaiserslautern, Germany. 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 number no.11801-206499.

Folding tripod stands were well known in the ancient world, in both Greek and Roman contexts. These folding supports for tables, bracers and cauldrons are known finds from important excavations in the Roman world, like Pompeii. The purpose of such folding stands varied: during the meal they were placed between the triclinary beds, and bowls and application plates were hung to the hooks at the back of the holders, here shaped like the heads of a Bacchus. They were also used for the fire in military encampments, or in the temples of the gods. Others were used as the support frames for bronze bowls, either for washing or for ritual purposes. Many were offered as funerary gifts, like the splendid example in the chariot grave of Környe. Roman folding tripods were also used in religious rituals (here clearly linked to the cult of the god of wine, as shown by the presence of panthers) and sacrifices. Burnt offerings and libations were offered to the gods in cauldrons that would have been attached to the hooks behind the heads on the upper section.

Each composed of a slender round-section hoop tapering towards the closure, free-running dangle featuring an emerald green glass bead between gold annular beads. 4.41 grams total, 35-37 mm



From a late Japanese specialist collector, 1970-2000s.