Lot 273A

Holy Land Pottery Pair - Levantine Lug-Handled Jar & Islamic Oil Lamp

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Lot 273
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Holy Land Pottery Pair - Levantine Lug-Handled Jar & Islamic Oil Lamp
Holy Land Pottery Pair - Levantine Lug-Handled Jar & Islamic Oil Lamp
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Holy Land Pottery Pair - Levantine Lug-Handled Jar & Islamic Oil Lamp

Estimate: $250 - $350
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT (In Progress)
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Eastern Mediterranean, Holy Land, ca. 100 BCE; Near East, Islamic period, ca. 8th to 9th century CE. A pairing of utilitarian earthenware spanning nearly a millennium of life in the Levant. The first, a small round-bodied jar with flaring mouth and two pierced lug handles at the shoulder, is a product of the Holy Land around 100 BCE; its coarse, sand-tempered fabric, warmed to a buff-terracotta tone, suited it to oils, ointments, or household provisions. The second, an oil lamp of elongated form with a bridged nozzle drawn to a single wick-hole and a central filling aperture sunk into a domed reservoir, belongs to the Islamic Near East of the 8th to 9th century CE; centuries of burial have left its surface mottled with earthen accretion and faint mineral bloom. Together they speak to the enduring, undecorated material culture of the region, where such jars stored the necessities of ordinary life and such lamps lit homes and tombs alike. Size of larger (oil lamp): 6.3" W x 2.1" H x 3.5" D (16.0 cm W x 5.3 cm H x 8.9 cm D).

Mold-formed oil lamps of this elongated, single-nozzle type were produced across the Holy Land into the early Islamic period, descending from earlier Byzantine and Roman forms. Fired in two-part molds, they were inexpensive, ubiquitous, and served both domestic illumination and funerary deposition. The lug-handled jar belongs to a far older and remarkably conservative tradition of small Levantine storage and unguent vessels, whose plain bodies prize function over ornament and changed little across the centuries that separate the two objects here.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA Collection; ex-private Denver, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private Flushing, New York and Ridgeway, Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 203169

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000