Terracotta lamp with maker’s mark Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN1883.84.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN1883.84 AshLI 417

An oil lamp of fired clay, circular in form, its handle broken off, with a lug on either side of the discus. It has an extended channel (length, 0.035) for the nozzle with wick-hole and rim. T he discus is decorated with the image of a human profile of uncertain gender facing left. The filling-hole is just to the left of this image.

Lamp: length, 0.105; height, 0.031

On the underside is the maker’s mark FELIX in relief within three circular grooves.

 Letters: 0.008 AD c.50-200 This lamp was presented to the Ashmolean by the Rev. Greville John Chester (1830-1892), of Tetsworth Vicarage (Accessions Register), who had studied at Balliol College and had a lifelong interest in archaeology, collecting a wide variety of artefacts on his frequent travels both to the Mediterranean and further afield, and making regular contributions to the Archaeological Journal (Seidmann 2006). It is currently on display in the Rome Gallery. Photograph: base Photograph: top Photograph: base
FELIX

Felix (made this)

It is characteristic of Italian factory lamps that they bore a maker’s mark consisting of a cognomen written out in full, with the lettering in relief (Bailey 1972: p.24).

Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS Accession Register 1883.84

Bailey D.M. 1972 rev. edn Greek and Roman Pottery Lamps Oxford British Museum SeidmannG. 2006 The Rev. Greville John Chester and ‘The Ashmolean Museum as a Home for Archaeology in Oxford’ Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 16.1 27-33