drinking-vessel

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

Object Type
Museum number: 1898,0719.2
Description: Bottom of a drinking vessel; glass; with parts of the thin transparent sides still remaining. On the circular bottom, which has a blue background, is a gladiator holding a sword and trident; his loin-cloth is of silver foil with indented edges, and his belt is outlined and ornamented in red; one arm is tightly bound with leather thongs, and his body is partially covered with armour; behind is a windbag for practising boxing, and on it are two crossed swords; round the field is an inscription.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 4thC
Production place: Made in: Rome (city) (?)
Findspot: Found/Acquired: Rome (city), catacomb (probably)
Materials: glass; gold; silver
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 82.60 millimetres; Weight: 34.90 grammes; Width: 70.30 millimetres; Depth: 16.60 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: Published: H. Tait (ed.), Masterpieces of Glass, London, 1968, no 89.
Bibliographic references: Dalton 1901 / Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (603); Vopel 1899 / Die altchristlichen Goldgläser (56); Howells 2015 / A Catalogue of the Late Antique Gold Glass in the British Museum (p.16-17, p.23, p.30, p.31, table.1, p.136, pl.116, p.34, table.4, p.37, table.6, p.38, p.39, p.43, p.132-145, p.135-136, p.136, pl.116, p.167) (Cat.42)
Location: On display (G41/dc8/sA)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2012-2013 11 Nov-25 Aug, USA, Art Institute of Chicago, Tradition Transformed: Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum
Condition: Fragment.
Subjects: arms/armour; gladiator
Acquisition name: Purchased from: Count Michel Tyszkiewicz (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, 8-10 June 1898, lot 103); Purchased through: Rollin & Feuardent
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1898
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1898,0719.2
Conservation

Free entry

Opening hours