Bulbous Bottle

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Bulbous Bottle

Place of OriginRoman Empire

Date1st century CE (or modern?)

DimensionsH: 4 in. (10.2 cm); Rim Diam: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Body Diam: 2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm)

MediumGlass; free blown, threads picked up and combed, reinflated and tooled.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1479

Not on View

DescriptionThis small bulbous bottle was made by free-blowing glass, picking up a thread, combing it, reinflating, and tooling it into its final shape. The glass is translucent medium brown in color (near 5 YR 4/4) with numerous small spherical bubbles and a few larger bubbles in the body and base; some bubbles have burst at the surface. An opaque white thread, which appears light yellowish brown on the lower body, spirals from the base to the rim and is combed into a pattern of quadruple festoons around the body and neck. The bottle has an everted rim rolled inward with a tool mark on the interior, a tall tapering neck with a curved transition to the shoulder, and a near-spherical body that rests on a flattened base.

Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 53, no. 111. (A close parallel dated "Late 1st-early 2nd century A.D.")