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A Roman yellowish-green glass 'lotus bud' beaker image 1
A Roman yellowish-green glass 'lotus bud' beaker image 2
Lot 137*

A Roman yellowish-green glass 'lotus bud' beaker

Antiquities
7 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £6,120 inc. premium

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A Roman yellowish-green glass 'lotus bud' beaker
Circa late 1st Century A.D.
Of cylindrical tapering form, with flat ground rim, blown in a four part mould, three for the body and one for the base, moulded with four staggered rows of prominent 'lotus buds', set on a flat base with a central boss and raised concentric ring, 12.4cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
with Antiquarium Ltd, New York.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above 19 March 1992.

For an interpretation of such beakers cf. E. Marianne Stern, The Toledo Museum of Art, Roman Mold-blown Glass, Toledo, 1995, p. 103-104, no. 8 and fig.70. Although the bosses on these beakers are likened to lotus buds or almonds it seems most likely that they are intended to represent the gnarled wood knots of Hercules' club, which was said to have been the trunk of an olive tree. Hercules was renowned for his prowess in drinking and was even depicted in mosaics from Antioch having wine drinking contests with the god of wine himself, Dionysus. Hence such beakers as the above lot were likely associated with Hercules and his prowess in drinking.

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Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin
A small Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone inscribed for King Sin-Kashid of Uruk
A Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Hittite bronze helmet with pelta-shaped cheek-pieces
A Babylonian agate "eye-stone" bead, inscribed for Nebuchadnezzar II
A large Etruscan Impasto Ware pottery olla
A Roman marble torso of a youth wearing a tunic
A Roman marble head of a satyr
An Attic pottery tankard with geometric decoration
A Greek bronze horse
A Greek pottery alabastron in the form of a greaved leg
A Greek green glazed faience hedgehog aryballos
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