Comments on: Only complete Roman cameo glass vase found

By: t-rex

t-rex — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:37:34 +0000

Several thoughts. First, if it’s a fake, the skill and labor that went into making it would have been just about prohibitively expensive. Would a forger go to that much trouble on the chance of duping someone into buying it? On the other hand, the resemblance of the shoulders, handles and neck to the Portland vase is so close as to make me uneasy, especially since it’s widely agreed that the Portland vase once had a lower register below the surviving section. This vase, unlike the Portland, has a clearly identifiable subject. Those figures Castor and Pollux carrying off the daughters of Leucippus, and in the lower register, fighting it out with the brothers of the women. It’s a popular theme on Roman sarcophagi, but the figures here seem to conflate a couple of iconographical elements involving other stories about the Dioscuri. I don’t know. I’m not going to buy it, put it that way

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:11:39 +0000

With such a vague provenance, I’m not sure it can tell us all that much about ancient artifacts.

By: Vintage Vase

Vintage Vase — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:05:25 +0000

I am more hopeful than skeptical, if it is in fact an authentic Roman Cameo Glass Vase then it will be a treasure that can help to further the known history of ancient artifacts. If it isn’t, well it’s a beautiful and intricate piece at least. I especially like the body’s detailed figure’s.

By: Στέφανος

Στέφανος — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:37:23 +0000

I think it’s time to change the point of view on how the roman cameos where made.
It doesn’t matter if the craftsman used five years or five days to do his job, it does not add to the value of the piece, it will stand the same whith all his beauty.
So please forget wheel cutting, engraving,scratchin, cold anealed glass of two layers with all of his tensions and see please the following link:
http://rosemarie-lierke.de/English/Cameo_glass/cameo_glass.html
If you think on how “Terra Sigillata” was made, it makes even more sense.
Even more. i bet the lead content of the white layer of this cameo, will be much higer than the blue glass under

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:16:55 +0000

It does, actually, although auction houses often choose to look the other way. The export of antiquities is closely regulated in almost all antiquities-heavy countries, and 103 countries, including Britain where the cameo vase now resides, have joined the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

This is why Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US has stopped hundreds of sales and repatriated looted pieces to their countries of origin.

By: Vetraius Vetus

Vetraius Vetus — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:04:27 +0000

Yes,such glasses can be scientifically analyzed and compared to known data bases.Therefore the question of authenticity easily answered.

The ownership issue is more problematical,but usually possession is nine tenths of the law. Unless the piece comes from a country where all antiquities are nationalized i.e.,Egypt,the title is usually with the owner.Whether laws are broken moving something from one place to another,it does not change the title of the temporal ownership.

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:42:38 +0000

Roman cameo glass is a very tough nut to forge. Only a highly skilled glassmaker and gem cutter could pull it off, which is why as far as we know there aren’t any forgeries floating about.

It could be a fake, sure, but that’s a far more complex proposition than somebody trying to pawn off a recently excavated piece as having a record of ownership.

By: livius drusus

livius drusus — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:40:09 +0000

I’m not sure what you mean. I linked to the story.

By: Ordinary Jill

Ordinary Jill — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:15:02 +0000

I’m skeptical. This may turn out to be a skillful and brazen forgery rather than a looted object of unknown provenance that just happens to be the only intact speciman of an extremely rare form. I hope they can analyze the glass to check for modern airborn pollutants.

By: steve

steve — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:30:58 +0000

beautiful,were did you get it,