**First Time At Auction**

Late Roman Imperial Period to Early Byzantine, ca. 4th to 5th century CE. A conical mold-blown glass beaker with a rounded bottom and a thick, flat rim, all boasting beautiful sage green hues with liberal areas of rainbow, golden, and silvery iridescence, the surface adorned with a band of blue ovoid forms applied around its body. Archaeologists have discovered such forms in ancient tombs. Some historians believe that they were used as lamps for the deceased to carry with them to the next world. A quote from Prudentius poetically describes such lamps in actual use (see extended description below) Size: 2.5" Diameter x 5" H (6.4 cm x 12.7 cm); 6.25" H (15.9 cm) on included custom stand.

This type of vessel was used in the late Roman to early Byzantine periods, designed to be filled with oil and placed into large metal fixtures. These fixtures contained multiple lamps and provided illumination in the same way that a candelabrum does today. The following eloquent quote from Prudentius captures the magical quality of a lamp like this example, "As for us, we pass the long night with pious gladness in festal congregations, in sleepless prayer we earnestly heap up petitions that will be granted, and on the altar raised up make offerings to God. The lamps gleam out, that hang by swaying cords from every panel of the roof, and the flame, fed by the oil on which it floats lazily, casts its light through clear glass. One would think the starry space stood over us, decked with the twin Bears, and that bright evening stars were everywhere scattered, where the Wain directs its team of oxen. How worthy a thing, O God, for Thy flock to offer Thee at dewy night's beginning - light, Thy most precious gift, light, by which we perceive all Thy other blessings." (Prudentius, Cathemarina V. 137-152 .)

Exhibited in "Ancient Glass: Selections from the Richard Brockway Collection" at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, Salem from March 10 to May 19, 2007 and "Glass of the Ancient World" at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida from October 11 to December 28, 2008.

Published in "Ancient Glass: Selections from the Richard Brockway Collection." Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, Salem, 2007; "Glass of the Ancient World." Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida; and "Antiques & Art Around Florida," Fall 2009 - Winter 2010. "Collecting Ancient Glass" by Richard Brockway with Lynette Macleod, pp. 26-27, 44-45, 47.

Provenance: private Vero Beach, Florida, USA collection, acquired before 2003

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#177401

Chips and small area of restoration to rim. Rest of glass body is intact. Nice areas of iridescence.