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Details
LOT 0769
Roman Terracotta Oil Lamp with Floral Motif
5TH CENTURY A.D.
4 1/2 in. (173 grams, 11.5 cm).
Grooved lug handle to rear, discus with two filling holes and a central rosette motif, foliate border to the shoulder; low basal ring and maker's mark 'E'.
Provenance
Acquired on the European art market, 1980s.
English private collection.
Literature
Cf. Bussière, J., Lindros Wohl, B., Ancient Lamps in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 2017, no.526, for the type (late lamps from Asia Minor).
Footnotes
Many lamps of this category (late lamps of Asia Minor types, sometimes just called 'late Ephesian lamps' but diffused in all of the Roman Levant) were discovered in the Seven Sleepers Cemetery at Ephesus. These lamp types have either a circular or an oval elongated body that is sharply carinated, with protruding nozzle. The shoulders are outward sloping and offer a variety of characteristic decorations in both relief and sunken patterns: rows of globules, slanted radiating grooves, ovolos, vine-tendrils and grapes, tongues or petals, and concentric rings.
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