Spherical Bottle with Two Handles (Aryballos)

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Spherical Bottle with Two Handles (Aryballos)

Place of OriginAncient Rome

Dateabout 1st-2nd century CE

DimensionsH: 3 3/8 in. (8.5 cm); Rim Diam: 1 7/16 in. (3.6 cm); Max Diam: 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm)

MediumGlass; free-blown, tooled, wheel cut, applied handles.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1072

Not on View

DescriptionThe vessel is made of thick glass, though the fabric cannot be determined due to weathering. It is transparent to translucent, showing a natural dusky yellow-green hue (near 5 GY 5/2). The bottle was free-blown with no pontil mark, and its decoration was created using wheel-cut techniques. The collar rim is hollow and has been carefully folded outward, downward, outward again, then upward, and flattened to form a broad, sturdy brim. A cylindrical neck with a constriction at its base transitions smoothly into a spherical body with a flattened base. Two coil handles are applied from the shoulder to the underside of the rim. Decorative wheel-cut circles appear just below each handle and on the base. The body is further embellished with four small wheel-cut circles, each set within a shallow wheel-cut groove and bordered by an additional circle. This type of bottle is classified as Isings 1957, Form 61.