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Lotus beakers (also sometimes called Club beakers *) is a large family of Roman mould blown vessels famously found at Pompeii (and elsewhere) and dating to the second half of the first century.

They are formed in three or sometimes four part moulds in clear blue, yellow and amber glass and have  hree to six ( usually five) staggered rows of rounded almond shaped  bosses which some people have thought might be imitative of those seen in silver beakers.

These bosses are generally thought to represent lotus buds. (However Stern (1995) has postulated that they represent the knobs on the club of Hercules*)

The rims of these vessels are very often unworked and  unsmoothed and they therefore might not have been used  for actually drinking from but made for votive or funerary purposes.








This pair of fakes was sold on ebay some time ago.

 



Other pieces sold to happy customers were actually a lot worse!

 








Here we can look more closely at a fake example I have in my "black museum"

 



The dirt is sprayed on and come off easily revealing totally pristine glass .




 




The irridescense is totally fake.

 




From David

 

The base of these lotus beakers normally have a separate base as part of the mould and this often has circles or rings on it. If I remember yours it had been blown into a mould without a base, so that when you looked at the bottom of the glass it had a dimpled effect where the glass had been blown through the bottomless mould straight on to the marble or stone table that it was standing on. perhaps you can check it and photograph it.

 

 

Ah, thanks. I had forgotten to illustrate that!

Here we are: genuine on the  right of course.

 




Here again is a rather nice genuine example and a group from The Corning Museum of Glass.