Parthian Oil Lamp. 2nd-3rd century A.D. An unglazed terracotta lamp, the sphero-conical cream body phallic-shaped with raised neck, wick-hole to the tip of the 'phallus'. Cf. a Parthian lamp from Dura Europos in the Yale University Art Gallery, inventory no.1930.95; cf. Debevoise, N.C., Parthian Pottery from Seleucia on the Tigris, University of Michigan, 1934, figs 354-367, for the type. 151 grams, 14.4 cm wide (5 5/8 in.) English collection formed in the 1990s. UK art market. Property of an Essex gentleman. These kinds of lamps were mainly excavated in Seleucia/Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian and then Sassanian kingdoms. [No Reserve]

Fine texture.