Signed Roman Oil Lamp with a Dwarf Symplegma

Culture: Roman

Period: 1st century A.D.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 9.6 cm long

Price: Sold

Ref: 7054

Provenance: From the estate of the French archaeologist Suzanne Gozlan (1921-2022), professor at the l’Ecole Normale d’Instituteurs de Chartres and lecturer at the Parisian Sorbonne.

Condition: Intact

Description: Signed oil lamp of brown clay without handle of the Loeschcke IV type. The high quality relief on the mirror depicts a dwarf couple making love on pillows in the form of an overlarge phallus. She has her arms stretched out, sits on him and looks around. The male dwarf with a large head and thick curls leans with the right elbow on the kline and stretches the left one upwards. Below the scene is the round pouring hole. The depiction is framed by a flute, followed by the semicircularly sloping shoulder. The round snout with a large nozzle is separated from the mirror by two volutes, which merge into buttons. The lamp stands on a ring foot stamped with the manufacturer's mark “LMVNSVC”. See for the type the oil lamp in Vindonissa Museum in Brugg/Aargau, Switzerland with the inventory number 41.276, 3431 and 3432, published in: “Sexual art on Roman lamps: analysis of provincial data” in: Journal of Roman Archaeology 36 (2023), p. 23-49.