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Piriform Bottle (Unguentarium)

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Piriform Bottle (Unguentarium)
Image Not Available for Piriform Bottle (Unguentarium)

Piriform Bottle (Unguentarium)

Place of OriginRoman Empire
Date1st century CE
DimensionsH: 2 3/8 in. (6.1 cm); Diam (rim): 3/4 in. (1.9 cm); Diam (body): 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm)
MediumGlass; free blown, threads picked up, reinflated and tooled.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.1474
Not on View
DescriptionThis small piriform bottle, or unguentarium, is made of translucent manganese-colored glass with lighter opaque marbling. It was free-blown without a pontil mark, with glass threads picked up, reinflated, and tooled to create a marbled pattern of vertical bands and festoons on the body. The bottle’s shape and technique correspond to Isings 1957, Forms 8 and 28, and Barag 1970, Type 16-1. It features a triangular rim folded outward, upward, and inward; a tall cylindrical neck with a constriction at the base; and a piriform body that makes up more than half of its height, with a decorative cut-out collar above the base.

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