Piriform Bottle (Unguentarium)

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Piriform Bottle (Unguentarium)

Place of OriginRoman Empire

Date1st century CE

DimensionsH: 5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm); Diam (rim): 1 3/16 in. (3.1 cm); Diam (body): 2 1/2 in. (6.3 cm)

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

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1476

Not on View

DescriptionThis bottle is free-blown from medium-thin, translucent grayish-green glass with an embedded opaque white thread. The overall fabric cannot be fully determined because of weathering. The bottle does not have a pontil mark. Its triangular rim is folded outward, upward, inward, and then flattened. The tall cylindrical neck has a constriction at its base, and the piriform body makes up approximately three-fifths of the total height. The base is flattened with a slight depression at the center. An added white spiral thread extends from the center of the base to the rim and is combed upward to form an irregular pattern of quintuple festoons. This vessel is classified as Isings 1957, Form 28 A.

Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 72, no. 242 (A close parallel dated "Early mid 1st century A.D.").