Ovoid Frog Style Terracotta Lamp with Hooked Ridge Relief

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Description: 

Ovoid Frog Style Terracotta Lamp with Hooked Ridge Relief

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: coarse, thick walls
height 3.6 cm
length 7.8 cm
width 7.6 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #277, PSU T-2 (207)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

 This is a gray, ovoid, frog lamp and has a short and wide nozzle. The design is completely stylized and bears no resemblance to a frog. It consists of a semi-circular pattern originating from a bump at the rear of the lamp. The bottom bears a potter's mark. Shape: Irregular round bodied lamp with flat base; slightly carinated body profile; small concave discus with small central fill hole; short rounded nozzle. Decoration: Frog type lamp. Relief decoration on top consisting of pair of ridges on nozzle axis framed by pair of hooked ridges (stylized volutes?); raised boss on shoulder opposite nozzle with small central depression; broad curved ridges extending around shoulder with one horizontal groove hear end; additional curved ridges near discus with short diagonal grooves (stylized palm?). Inscriptions: Potter's mark on bottom (alpha). Condition: Intact; burnt around wick hole; areas of later paint on bottom; minor surface chips.

Protocol: 
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center - Public Access
Community: 
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Category: 
Ceramics, Utilitarian Objects
Keywords: 
Lamp
Rights: 
Image reproduced with permission from Portland State University Middle East Studies Center. The institutions that house the specific Medieval Portland objects ultimately hold the rights to their image and reproduction; the images are provided here as a courtesy by those institutions and are for non-profit, educational use only.