The Schefler Collection (Lots 68-110)
Lot 108*
A Roman amber glass square-bodied juglet, moulded with a shrine
4 December 2025, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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Joanna van der Lande
Consultant
Siobhan Quin
Senior Specialist
Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
A Roman amber glass square-bodied juglet, moulded with a shrine
Circa 6th-early 7th Century A.D.
11.7cm high
11.7cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Archea, Amsterdam.
Schefler Collection, New York, acquired from the above, 28 October 1999.
This small square jug, with a single side bearing a stylised representation of the Edicule over the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, dates back to a time when pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem collected earth that had become scantified while left by guardians in Christ's tomb overnight. Collected in a range of containers these were then placed in their owners' graves to sanctify their final resting place. This small jug comes from a previously unrecorded mould with a pointed gable, horizontal crossbar resting on two columns from which is suspended a stylised lamp, the other three sides with a raised lattice design. A similar stylised building appears twice alternating with lattice designs on a small jug in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (59.22.2, fig. 1.01) and another was with the Barakat Gallery in 1985 (M. Newby, Byzantine Mould-Blown Glass from the Holy Land with Jewish and Christian Symbols (Shlomo Moussaieff, London), 2008, p. 22-3, square mould 1).