LOT 0200

Roman Cut-Glass Skyphos

1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

7 1/8 in. (260 grams, 18.3 cm wide).

Drum-shaped frosted glass vessel on a low basal ring, lateral loop handles each with an angled spur below and fish-tail plaque above.

Acquired in the 1980s.
with Christopher Sheppard, London, UK.
Acquired from the above in 2007.

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.13248-252970.

Cf. similar item in the Metropolitan Museum of Art under accession no.81.10.94, in Thorpe, W., ‘The Prelude to European Cut Glass’ in Transactions of the Society of Glass Technology, 23, 1936, p.14 n.2; cf. Whitehouse, D., Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass,, New York, 2001, part I, pp.92ff. and esp. no.133, for similar cups; for metal parallels see Hilgers, W., Lateinische Gefassnamen. Bezeichnungen, Funktion und Form römischer Gefasse nach den antiken Schriftquellen, Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbucher, v.31, Düsseldorf, 1969; Pappalardo, U., ’Gli Argenti’ in Ferrari, O. & Others, Le collezioni del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Roma, 1986, pp.91-99 and 206-217; for mould-blown skyphoi of the same type see Isings, C., Roman glass from dated finds, Groningen-Djakarta, 1957.

The classic shape of this skyphos, a two-handled drinking cup from the 1st century, reflects the metal prototypes of the period. The most famous are the silver cups from Boscoreale and the House of the Menander at Pompeii (Hilgers, 1969, pl.2, nos.5-6 and pl.4, nos.1-4; Pappalardo, 1986, pp.206-207, nos.1-4).