Ovoid Bottle with Stylized Grape Pattern (Sprinkler)

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Eastern Mediterranean, probably 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

DescriptionThis vessel is made of translucent to transparent grayish yellow-green glass (near 5 GY 7/2) with a similarly colored thread. It is mold-blown from medium thin glass with numerous small spherical bubbles, which appear elongated horizontally in the rim. The neck and mouth were free blown, while the body was blown into a three-part mold of two vertical sections joined to a disk-shaped base section (MCT VII), with visible vertical mold seams halfway between the leaves. The relief is moderately crisp but indistinct in the upper part of the body. The bottle has a circular flaring mouth with a hollow collar formed by a pushed-out projecting roll, and a short cylindrical neck that contains an interior diaphragm at its base. The ovoid body sits on a flat base with three narrow raised concentric circles on its underside. An applied thread encircles the top of the neck. The body features a stylized grape pattern consisting of ten interlocking rows of twenty-one contiguous hemispherical knobs, with two small leaves opposite each other on the shoulder, each centered between the mold seams. This vessel is classified as a 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.