So elusive is the beauty of this ancient bowl that it seems spun out of dreams. Time has patinated its surface with a silvery gleam like moonlight on water. Its shape can only be described as "classic", transcending all boundaries of time and culture. It delights us today as surely as it did the ancient Roman who owned it first. What is most amazing is that something so delicate should have survived the ages intact when so much else has vanished. We close our eyes, but unlike a dream, its beauty lingers on.