Details

LOT 0944

Roman Buffware Oil Lamp with Gladiator

2ND CENTURY A.D.

4 1/8 in. (97 grams, 10.5 cm).

Mould made, solid round handle with two circles, flat shoulder with a shallow row of ovolo motifs, separated from the discus by two shallow circular grooves; side central filling-hole and small air hole on the lower field of discus, decorated with a gladiator raising his right hand; heart-shaped nozzle, base-ring marked by radiating lines. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Literature

See Bussière, J., Lindros Wohl, B., Ancient Lamps in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 2017, nos.360 and ff., p.254ff., especially nos.371-372.

Footnotes

The lamp seems to belong to the Bussiere form DX1, maybe variant a and c. This form groups together lamps with a plain shoulder and a heart-shaped nozzle. In an early variant, D IX 1, the upper curves of the ‘heart’ are nearly on a horizontal level. This is the case for all the African and Italic examples in the Getty collection. Scenes of circus and gladiators are very popular.