Roman bowl makes record £2.6m

A Roman bowl became the most expensive piece of ancient glass ever sold at auction when it was bought for £2,646,650.

The artefact, known as the Constable-Maxwell cage cup, dates from the third century AD and went under the hammer to a telephone bidder at Bonhams.

Joanna van der Lande, the auctioneers' head of antiquities, said the 10in by 8in decorated bowl - probably a grave object - is believed to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean.

"It would have been highly important in its day," she said. "It is exceptionally fragile and cut from a single block of glass. It's really a very highly prized piece."

The auction saw the bowl achieve a record sale price for the third time. In 1979, British collector Andrew Constable-Maxwell sold it for £520,000 not including the buyer's premium.

Seven years later the cage cup was auctioned by the British Rail Pension Fund, fetching £2.1million excluding premium.

Yesterday's price was more than ?600,000 above the estimated sale figure of £2 million.