Roman Black Glass Bead Necklace String

Tall thin translucent pale green vessel with wide foot and dimpled base, tapering stem and flared rim. 18.6 grams, 15 cm



Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.

Squat burnished pottery lamp with stub nozzle, high-relief scene of two lovers on a couch; maker's mark 'LMVNSVC' to the underside. 64 grams, 95 mm



From the collection of French archaeologist Suzanne Gozlan (1921-2022).

The lamp belongs to the Bailey type B group ii (Loeschke type IV), usually dated from Tiberian to Trajanic times. Erotic lamps were particularly popular before the Christianisation of the Roman Empire. Roman sexuality differed considerably from later Christian European attitudes. Roman religion promoted sexuality as one of the fundamental aspects of prosperity for the entire state; individuals could turn to private religious practice, or even magic, to improve their erotic life or health and reproductive capacity; moreover, prostitution in ancient Rome was legal, public and widespread. Artistic subjects that today we would define without hesitation as pornography, were present among the art collections of the most respectable and high status Roman families.

Polished to an oval shape, engraved with eight theatre masks in two rows; one row with three tragic masks in profile, one depicting a satyr, and a tragic mask of an old man shown frontally; the opposing row with a tragic mask of an old man in profile, a Bacchus mask, a mask of a bearded man wearing a cap shown in three-quarter view, and a mask of a young hero facing the centre. 2.51 grams, 22.02 mm



From the collection of a late London, UK, gentleman, 1980s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.12033-214124.

The masks represented seem to be relevant to the typologies of the 'new comedy', an image that appears on cameos and gems since the Augustan era.