This beaker belongs to a large group of vessels characterized by pointed, three-tiered knob decoration, often supplemented by motifs such as circular bosses, theatrical masks, linear designs, or vine sprays. Various interpretations have been suggested for these knobs, identifying them as bosses, lotus buds, almonds, or knots in a tree trunk. However, the distinctive three-tiered form with profiled edges is most convincingly interpreted as being the nodes of an olive tree. Hercules’ club was traditionally fashioned from the trunk of an olive tree and is frequently depicted with similarly pronounced raised nubs, across a range of media, including at least three club-shaped glass bottles. This interpretation provides a persuasive basis for linking these vessels with Hercules, his virtues, and his well-known association with prodigious drinking.
Vessels decorated with tiered knobs are distributed widely, though unevenly, across the Roman Empire and beyond its frontiers. Examples ornamented solely with such raised motifs are generally attributed to the western provinces of the Empire.
They were made in a number of different sizes of which this is an example of the smallest, and most delicate.Provenance
Howard Philips, Henrietta Place, London, UKProfessor Edward T. (Teddy) Hall (1924-2001), UK; acquired from the above 1973, inventory number ETH Collection 506
Christie's, London, Antiquities, 20th April 2005, lot 168
Charles Ede Ltd, London, UK; acquired from the above
Jonathan Brayne, UK; acquired from the above 9th August 2005 for £8698.83
Edward Hall was Director of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford 1954-1989. He was elected a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford in 1969 and made Professor of Archaeological Sciences in 1975. member of the council of the International Institute for Conservation from 1971 to 199, and served as its president from 1989 to 1992. He was a trustee of the British Museum (1973-1995), National Gallery (1977-1984) and The Science Museum (1984-1992).
Hall was the leading expert in the development of archaeometry, the science that took the guesswork out of establishing the age and origin of some of the most fragile and precious objects in international collections of archaeology and art. He exposed the Piltdown Man fossils as a fraud, and debunked the myth that the Turin Shroud had wrapped the body of Christ after the Crucifixion.
