Jar with Base Ring and Two Handles (Amphoriscus)

Image Not Available

Jar with Base Ring and Two Handles (Amphoriscus)

Place of OriginAncient Rome

Date1st century CE

DimensionsH: 4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.54 cm); Max Diam: 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm); Base Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)

MediumGlass; free blown and tooled, with applied handles

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.663

Not on View

DescriptionThis jar with base ring and two handles, classified as Isings 1957, Form 15, is made of translucent manganese-colored glass with two similarly colored handles. The vessel is free-blown with no pontil mark and is formed of thin glass containing numerous pinprick bubbles. The rim is rolled inward with a visible tool mark on the interior. It has a tall, slightly concave neck that transitions smoothly to the shoulder and an ovoid body that tapers to a pushed-in base with a hollow tubular base ring showing a slight central depression. Two bifurcated handles extend from the shoulder to the rim.

Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 55, no. 128. (A close parallel dated "About late 1st-early 2nd century A.D.").Comparative ReferencesSee also Hayes 1975, no. 128 differs from TMA not only in handles but also in concave base; von Saldern 1974, no. 545 (ill.) (blue, FO unknown, H approximately 10.0 cm. handles don't touch rim); Smith 1957, no. 62 (ill.) opaque white, acq. Lebanon (handles bifurcated? Now in Corning ?); check Charvet. Look for more Eastern examples. Is there a criterion for distinguishing Eastern ones from Western ones? See Smith 1982, no. 21, fig. 4 from Monasteriaki Kephala (Crete), in a tomb dated to the second half of the first cent.