Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
Lot 8*
A Roman amber glass 'Victory' beaker
6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £25,250 inc. premium
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Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
A Roman amber glass 'Victory' beaker
Circa early-mid 1st Century A.D.
Blown in a two-part mould, of cylindrical form with a narrow everted rim, with three registers of decoration divided by horizontal ribs, the upper and lower with six stylised victory wreaths, a pair of opposing palm branches concealing the vertical mould seams, the central register with Greek inscription: ɅABE THИ NEIKHN ('Seize the Victory'), the underside of the flat base with a single raised circle, 6.5cm high
Circa early-mid 1st Century A.D.
Blown in a two-part mould, of cylindrical form with a narrow everted rim, with three registers of decoration divided by horizontal ribs, the upper and lower with six stylised victory wreaths, a pair of opposing palm branches concealing the vertical mould seams, the central register with Greek inscription: ɅABE THИ NEIKHN ('Seize the Victory'), the underside of the flat base with a single raised circle, 6.5cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
Mr and Mrs A. Constable-Maxwell collection, UK.
The Constable-Maxwell Collection of Ancient Glass; Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 4-5 June 1979, lot 229.
Important Ancient Glass from the Collection formed by the British Rail Pension Fund; Sotheby's, London, 24 November 1997, lot 15.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above sale.
Published:
S.B. Matheson, Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1980, p. 53-54.
On Loan:
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980-1985.
The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, 1985-1995.
This beaker is an important example of a group of mould-blown drinking cups which have been variously suggested as commemorative of drinking games, chariot races and gladiatorial contests; though the specifics remain debateable, the inscription of 'Seize the Victory' and the stylised wreaths confirms this cup was used for celebration of some sort of feat.
These Victory beakers were first discussed and categorised by D. B. Harden in 'Romano-Syrian Glasses with Mould-Blown Inscriptions;, JRS, vol. 25, 1935, pp. 163-186. The Constable-Maxwell beaker falls into Harden's Group K (he lists 17 examples), sub-group 1 iii. A characteristic of this sub-group is the distinctive reversed N, and the extended E in NEIKHN. The reversed N is either the result of a mistake by the mould-maker while working in negative, or an intentional design. If the latter, it may be a maker's mark, the significance of which is now lost.
There are at least four distinct types of these so-called 'Victory' beakers, some of which have been found along the Syro-Palestinian coast, Cyprus, Greece, Sardinia and Panticapaeum in the Crimea. They may have originated from workshops near Sidon, on the Phoenician coast.
For related amber coloured examples of this type of inscribed drinking cup, see examples in the British Museum, London, acc. no. 1894,1101.108, J. Paul Getty Museum, LA, no. 2003.319 (formerly in the Oppenländer collection), the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (N. Kunina, Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection, St Petersburg, 1997, p.273, no. 113), the Toledo Museum of Art, OH, acc. nos. 1923.411-412 (E. Marianne Stern, The Toledo Museum of Art, Roman Mold-Blown Glass, Toledo, 1995, p.98-99), and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, acc. no. 77.12.751. See also the example recorded in D. Whitehouse, Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2, Corning, 2001, p. 26, no. 491, where he lists twenty known examples of Victory beakers with a one-line inscription.
