CULTURE / REGION OF ORIGIN: Roman Empire, probably Eastern Mediterranean.
DATE: 1st or 2nd Century CE.
DIMENSIONS: 9.0 cm. (3.5 in.) long

DESCRIPTION: Intact. A Roman mould-made red slip ceramic oil lamp with a volute nozzle, the discus decorated with a facing head of Silenus, including curly beard and ivy leaf crown. The discus is surrounded by a three-tiered circular moulding and has a fill hole to the lower right of the Silenus head. There are carbon stains around the wick hole. The brick red slip is generally very well preserved.

PROVENANCE: Formerly in the private English collection of Mr. Peter Negus, the collection formed between the 1920s and 2007 from various sources in the UK and abroad.

PUBLISHED: Bonham’s, ANTIQUITIES, 26 October, 2007, London, page 142, illustrated in color.

COMPARISONS: For a nearly identical example, see the website of the Harvard University Semitic Museum’s Cesnola Collection (www.fas.harvard.edu/semitic/Cesnola), Semitic Museum No. 1995.10.962, said to have been found on Cyprus and dated to 40-100 CE.