Conical Lamp with Blue Blob Decoration

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Conical Lamp with Blue Blob Decoration

Place of OriginEgypt

Date5th-6th century

DimensionsH: 8 1/8 in. (20.7 cm); Rim Diam: 4 9/16 in. (11.7 cm); Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm)

MediumBlown with applied and wheel-cut decoration

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineReceived in exchange from the Kelsey Museum of Ancient & Medieval Archaeology, University of Michigan

Object number

1983.45

Not on View

DescriptionA free-blown conical vessel composed of transparent natural light olive glass (near 10 Y 5/4, slightly yellower). The glass is thin, containing small ovoid bubbles. The rim is cut and slants outward. The body is conical, slightly convex in the upper section and concave in the lower, terminating in a flattened base with a slight central depression. There is no pontil mark. The decoration consists of wheel-cut incisions and applied glass. Three bands of wheel-cut lines encircle the upper half of the body. Between the top and middle bands lies a decorative frieze of translucent-to-opaque dark blue blobs. This pattern is composed of two groups of nine small blue blobs separated by two large blue blobs.

Label TextThis conical glass lamp, made in Egypt between the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., would have likely hung in a metal fixture or chandelier to light a home, church, or public building. The vessel was filled with oil and water, with a wick floating on the surface. Its decoration is simple but effective: bands of wheel-cut lines and a necklace of applied dark blue glass "blobs" that would have glowed in the flickering light. This specific lamp arrived at the Museum in 1983 as part of a friendly trade with the University of Michigan, replacing a nearly identical one so that the University could reunite a specific tomb group from their excavations.Comparative ReferencesHarden, Donald B., Roman Glass from Karanis, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1936, pp. 162–164, nos. 457–463, pls. V, XVI (comparative material).