File:Roman lamp mount frog back (FindID 524521).jpg

English: A cast copper alloy lamp fitting in the form of a frog (cast in 3D) with a disc in the form of a lions head (cast in 2D) between its splayed back legs.

The frogs head and back legs are raised above the relatively straight body, giving it an elongated U shape in profile. The back legs are bent at the knees, enabling the feet to splay out to cradle the lion's head. The snout of the frog is rounded and eyes are bulging. Several raised lines on the frog's back suggest detailed skin. The underside of the frog is featureless. There is little sign of wear in the underside of the head where the object would have rested on a floor or table. Uneven, swirled patterens in the reverse of the lion's head, and a central circular depression, suggest that this is where the object was soldered and attached to the base of the lamp.

The frog is 75mm long. The front feet are splayed to 41mm from toe to toe. The body is 14mm at its widest (just above the front feet) and narrows slightly at the 'waist' towards the back feet. The knees are bent to measure 38mm wide, fron knee to knee, and the back feet are splayed to measure 32mm from toe to toe. The frogs body is oval in cross section and measures 9mm thick. The lion's head is 17mm in diameter.

This object is a foot from the base of a tall lamp. Three frogs similar to this would have been fixed to the circular base of the lamp. The underside of the frog's head and front feet are the support for the lamp, and the mount is fixed to the base of the lamp via a circular hole and (probably) solder at the reverse of the lion's head. The lions head is of the same style, albeit smaller, than Lion's Head casket mounts recorded elsewhere on this database (see <a href="http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/417572" title="View details for GLO-E759A0">GLO-E759A0</a> and NARC-24B864).

The finder has kindly provided a reference to a parallel held at the University of Michigan, USA, which is believed to be a copy of one discovered in Pompeii. The website containing the image is here: <a href="http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/KelseyLampHolder.html">http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/KelseyLampHolder.html</a>

Due to the presence of a possible parallel from Pompeii this mount has been given a date of AD 50 to AD 100, although of course it may have been over 30 years old at the time of its burial. References to the original, or similar, lamps as the Michigan example are still being sought and this record will be updated with such in due course.