I had forgotten about a gift certificate received from Harlan Berk that was due to expire at the end of the year, so I took a careful look at the coins in his #213 Bid/Buy Sale and didn't find anything that would fit into what I'm currently collecting . As a last resort I continued browsing through the antiquities section and found this handsome little bronze oil lamp pictured below . After moving from a large house to a small condominium 6 years ago I really didn't have room for any more art objects or antiquities, but this little gem was small enough to fit in, so I called & spoke to their antiquities expert about the lamp. The lamp is as found with no repairs, rework, holes, or over-cleaning. The dark patina is interrupted with areas of mottled corrosion, but nothing too deep. The lamp arrived in the mail Saturday. The lamp has a simple graceful form with a lid and thumbpiece in the form of a seashell. The lid has a finger grip on the top. Roman Bronze Oil Lamp, circa 2nd century AD, 5.02 in. long, 2.03 in wide, 2.48 in. high, 9.385 oz. troy. I haven't rubbed the lamp yet to see if there was a magic genie inside, maybe later
Excellent little piece sir. I agree, a few antiquities accents an ancient coin collection. I have terracotta lamps, roman glass, a cuneiform cone, etc.
It's not my thing, but I can certainly appreciate it. I have tried to avoid collecting anything thicker than coin slab because of storage issues.
Rub the lamp and ask for 20,000,000 gold coins. You can send each one of us on CT one and keep the rest, sounds good to me! Thanks for the post
A beauty of a lamp. Certainly is a fine piece to pair with an ancient coin collection. My opinion? Rub on and keep us posted on what pops up.
@Al Kowsky, that's a beautiful lamp. It's certainly unusual to see them in bronze; most are terracotta. Here's a photo of my one ancient Roman terracotta oil lamp, which I purchased at Coincraft across from the British Museum on my trip to England with my son in 2002.
Donna, That's a nice looking terracotta lamp with a relief pattern . Before I moved to Churchville I sold two terracotta lamps, one with a gladiator combat scene in relief that was restored. Even restored I got $400 for it . The bronze lamps can get very pricey. The hilarious lamp pictured below has a figural mouse on the handle, it sold at a Christie's auction for $11,200 ! If the Romans only knew that these cute rodents carried the Black Death .... Roman Bronze Oil Lamp, 1st-2nd century AD, 4.625 in. long. Christie's, 2011, $11,200.00.
It's neat, I like it. I still have to keep the genie in the lamp as far as jumping into ancient antiques. I don't need something else to scatter to with comics, autographs, action figures and so on always picking at my wallet.
Donna's lamp is a north-African type from around 400 or thereabouts. An extraordinary specimen for a late roman pottery lamp.
The shape of the lamp and the open canal to the beak, with the lamelar handle that goes down to the base of the lamp and the decorations on the margins and the disk of the lamp are quite specific. These were extremely popular throughout the Mediterranean and the lower Danube and Balkans and many later specimens bare christian motifs.
@DonnaML I think this is the decoration type on your lamp with the basic north-African shape from ca. 400: http://kenchreai.org/kaa/ke/ke0602?more=true For more press on African Red Slip Lamp Hayes Type II to follow on other styles of decoration on the same lamp type.
Thank you. Certainly a strong resemblance. I will try to find the receipt from 2002 to see what it said.
