Hi Robert,
> I doubt that such a patent fake would be sold at this venue
My tongue-in-cheek comment that "only a severely myopic two-year-old" would be fooled by this lamp was clearly exaggerated - and you may be right that its inauthenticity may not be all that obvious to everyone. People who specialise in a certain field sometimes tend to wrongly assume that if something is obvious to them it must be equally obvious to everyone else.
Nevertheless, even though displayed at a show devoted primarily to coins rather than antiquities, I would be surprised if your lamp did not raise doubts among a few of the dealers present. It is an incongruous amalgam not only of different periods but of different types of object. The filling-hole and black glaze pay vague homage to the central tubes and finish of Greek lamps of the 5th-4th centuries BC, but since real lamps of that period were undecorated (and thus not as attractive to tourists) the designer based the decoration on something else from that period that was (probably Apulian fish plates - albeit in reality painted rather than moulded) and adopted the shape of Roman lamps from several hundred years later to accommodate it.
It is typical of tourist trinkets to ignore historical niceties - after all they are intended only as decorative souvenirs - but its glaring anachronisms should be immediately spotted by anyone experienced in handling ancient lamps.
You can get an idea of what real lamps of the Greek Classical period look like in the second section here:
http://www.romulus2.com/lamps/lampcat/lampcat1.shtml
I wish you luck with future purchases. It is always a good idea to do your own research rather than relying too heavily on the opinion of a seller - particularly if antiquities are only a sideline to their main stock.
David K.
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Hi:
Some background on the lamp:
I purchased the said lamp at the Long Beach Coin show: it was prominently displayed. I doubt that such a patent fake would be sold at this venue--this leads to a certain level of confidence. Moreover the dealer was The Time Machine--who I have never had problems with. And who displays there regularly.
Lamps are not my specialty--so I stand corrected on that point.
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