Roman Dimpled Glass Flask

A slender gold finger ring with loops and granule to each shoulder, beaded wire rim to the cell, inset agate cloison with intaglio fish. 2.38 grams, 24.55 mm overall, 23.14 mm internal diameter (approximate size British W, USA 11, Europe 25, Japan 24)



English private collection.

An engraved gemstone with a stylised image of Harpocrates, depicted as a naked child with a finger raised on his mouth, seated on a lotus flower in a boat, groups of wild animals arranged in threes surrounding; the other side with a magic inscription in Greek letters 'I, E, A, P, Φ, K, Ο, Γ'. 1.25 grams, 14 mm



Acquired before 1988. Ex family collection, by descent, Geneva.

Egyptian deities are often represented on magical gems. One of the most interesting figures is the image of Harpocrates seated on a lotus flower, called ‘the young sun’. This figure had a solar nature and a protective function.

A clay lamp with rounded lug handle, shoulder with foliage in relief on each side, separated from the slightly concave discus by a ridge, which continues toward the round-tipped nozzle forming a wide channel between the discus and the wick hole; two equal-sized filling-holes at upper and lower part of the discus decorated with a lion running left, raised slightly convex base-ring with an additional inner ring. 163 grams, 13.5 cm



Acquired from a central London Antiquities Dealers Association (ADA) member's gallery in 1990. From the estate of a Lancashire gentleman.

The present lamps seems to be molded in Terra Sigillata Africana (TSA) = African Red Slip (ARS) and can be related to Atlante types VI. The passage from lamps of Loeschcke type VIII in TSA with a heart-shaped nozzle ( = Atlante form I) to the channelled so-called Christian lamps ( = Atlante forms VIII and X, or Hayes types I and II) was progressively achieved by three factors: the transformation of the initially circular discus into an oval shape, the elongation of the nozzle, and the increased width and length of the channel.