Ovoid Bottle with Stylized Grape Pattern (Sprinkler)

Place of OriginRome, Eastern Mediterranean (Syro-Palestine)

DateProbably 3rd Century CE

DimensionsH: 4 in. (10.5 cm); Rim Diam: 2 7/16 in. (6.2 cm); Body Diam: 2 13/16 in. (7.1 cm); Base Diam: 1 7/16 in. (3.6 cm)

MediumGlass; mold-blown, tooled.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1078

Not on View

DescriptionTranslucent to transparent grayish yellow green (near 5 GY 7/2). Similarly colored thread. Medium thin glass. Numerous small spherical bubbles, elongated horizontally in rim. Neck and mouth free blown. Body blown into a three-part mold of two vertical sections joined to a disk-shaped base section (MCT VII). Vertical mold seams halfway between the leaves. Relief moderately crisp but indistinct in upper part of body. Pontil mark ca. 0.8 cm. Added thread. Circular flaring mouth with hollow collar formed by a pushed-out projecting roll. Short cylindrical neck, with an interior diaphragm at its base. Ovoid body. Flat base. At top of neck, an applied thread. On the body, stylized pattern of grapes consisting of ten interlocking rows of twenty-one contiguous hemispherical knobs. At the shoulder, oppsoite each other and centered between the mold seams, two small leaves with a central vein. On underside of base, three narrow raised concentric circles. CLASSIFICATION: Stylized Grape Bottle, Series A.

Published ReferencesStern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries, Rome, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1995, p. 193, no. 123.