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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1977.216.3423
Title
Factory Lamp
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Lamp with Upright Bar and Suspension Hole
Classification
Lighting Devices
Work Type
lighting device
Date
1st-2nd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304148

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
8.1 x 6.5 x 10.3 x 0.6 cm (3 3/16 x 2 9/16 x 4 1/16 x 3/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 76.84; Sn, 9.31; Pb, 13.56; Zn, 0.055; Fe, 0.04; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.07; Sb, 0.1; As, less than 0.10; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: Six of the seven lamps (1920.44.181, 1965.87, 1977.216.3406, 1977.216.3407, 1977.216.3423, 1978.495.32, and 1992.256.93) have mostly green patinas. 1977.216.3407 is mostly brown and black with areas of dark green. 1977.216.3423 has a large area of blue. 1978.495.32 and 1920.44.181 are more mineralized, and large lumps of raised corrosion products obscure the finer details of their surfaces. 1920.44.181 has lost the tip of its spout and much of its handle due to its fragile, mineralized condition.

All of the lamps except 1977.216.3406 were cast, presumably using a lost-wax technique. The interior surfaces generally conform to the exterior profiles, including the small feet, and it is likely that molds were used to form the wax models of the main portions of these lamps. The perfectly circular central elements may be the result of using a wheel to create the original models from which the wax casting molds were made. These shapes were then altered manually to form the spouts and decorative elements. The handles were probably added manually to the cast-wax body models. The rather substantial handle of 1965.87 could easily have been molded at the same time as the body of the lamp, although there is no indentation in the interior to prove this. The separately cast lid on this lamp is intact and held in place with an oversized—but seemingly original—copper alloy pin.

The bowl section of 1977.216.3406 is so thin and its interior surface is so smooth that it appears to have been raised rather than cast. Its thickness varies between 0.5 and 1.0 mm. An x-radiograph of the lamp reveals distinct hammer marks, which confirm that the surface was raised. The cast base is attached with lead solder. Its shape is perfectly circular, implying that its model was turned on a wheel. A projecting rim at the bottom of the base indicates that it was attached to a larger base section or mount. Solder is also present there and at a spot at the back of the lamp, where a handle had been attached but is now lost.

The exterior surface of 1920.44.181 has elongated fiber-shaped carbon inclusions embedded in its corrosion products. All of the lamps, except 1977.216.3406, appear to have oil residues mixed with accretions and corrosion products in their interiors.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Accession Year
1977
Object Number
1977.216.3423
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The shape of this piece is typical of factory lamps (1), but the volutes of the nozzle are poorly defined and lump-like on both sides and on the back. The lamp has no handle, but the hole in the back might indicate that it had one originally. A center suspension bar is set parallel to the nozzle; it is fully preserved but bent. On the top of the reservoir, on each side of the bar, is a hole. The right hole is round (0.65 cm); the left hole was apparently originally oval (0.83 cm maximum diameter). The disc is concave within a raised rim, which extends along the top of the nozzle to form a channel to the wick hole. The wall is unusually thick. The nozzle is 2.8 cm long, the height of the reservoir is 3.9 cm, and the height of the suspension bar is 4.6 cm.

Factory lamps were mass-produced in Italy starting in the second half of the first century CE and continued through the second century CE. The poor quality of this piece suggests a late date.

NOTES:

1. It is close to M. Conticello de’ Spagnolis and E. De Carolis, Le lucerne di bronzo, Musei della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Inventari e Studi 1 (Vatican City, 1986) 37-38, no. 12, which is dated to the second century CE. For general discussion of factory lamps, their manufacturers, and their ceramic equivalents, see D. M. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum 2: Roman Lamps Made in Italy (London, 1980) 271; the closest is inv. no. Q1172 from the Fortis factory dated in the late first to the second half of the second century CE.


Jane Ayer Scott

Subjects and Contexts

  • Roman Domestic Art
  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu