The Society of Antiquaries' Sabbath Lamp

It is not surprising that the bronze oil lamp presented to the Society of Antiquaries by Sir Hans Sloane on 28 July 1736 (but ‘dug up at St Leonard's Hill, near Windsor’ in 1717 and published in 1718, fig 1) was considered to be Roman as it resembles oil lamps discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii. However, the Roman lamps have a footring on their base, and not a drip pan, which is missing from the Society's lamp. It has since been identified as medieval. It resembles the thirteenth-century bronze sabbath lamp (fig 2) discovered in Bristol in 1976 on the site of New Jewry (1266–90) in Peter Street. The Bristol lamp has three spouts and the drip pan is also missing.