Frog Style Terracotta Lamp with Short Nozzle and Frog Relief

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Description: 

Frog Style Terracotta Lamp with Short Nozzle and Frog Relief

2nd-4th century CE

terracotta: mold-made, fabric: coarse pale clay with inclusions. Munsell: 10 YR 7/3 very pale brown
height 3.3 cm
length 7.9 cm
width 7.0 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #71, PSU 007 (104)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This lamp is of the frog variety. It has a short, wide nozzle. The design is very worn but the rear legs are discernible. The entire lamp is worn and the point of juncture of the two halves is visible. There is a very poorly defined potter's mark on the bottom. Shape: Round bodied lamp with short extended nozzle with rounded termination; flat base; central fill hole on top within concave discus. Decoration: Frog lamp. Relief decoration on top; very worn; hind legs opposite nozzle, triangular cross-barred tail; axis between fill hole and wick hole decorated with ladder pattern flanked by volutes. No slip. Inscriptions: Potter's mark on base (very worn). Condition: Intact but recomposed from two halves (broken along seam between upper and lower part); surface very worn; lots of chips and flakes; burning around wick hole.

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.