Bulbous Bottle with Bells

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Bulbous Bottle with Bells

Place of OriginRome

Date4th-6th century CE

DimensionsH: 7 7/16 in. (18.9 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); Diam (body): 3 in. (7.6 cm)

MediumGlass; free blown, tooled, applied decoration

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1064

Not on View

DescriptionThis bottle is made of thin glass with numerous vertically elongated bubbles in the neck. The fabric of the body cannot be determined because of weathering. The body is transparent with a natural pale green tint (10 G 6/2). The applied decoration includes translucent to opaque dark royal blue thread, suspension loops, and bells, with the suspension chains and clappers covered with dusky yellow weathering (5 Y 6/4). The bottle is free-blown with no pontil mark. The decorative loops and bells were added separately. The bottle has a chimney mouth with a rim rounded in the flame. The tubular neck has a constriction at its base and connects to a bulbous body with its greatest diameter just below the shoulder. The base is concave. Around the middle three-quarters of the neck, there are at least thirty-two revolutions of a thin thread, with four separate coils applied at regular intervals from the top to the bottom of the thread decoration. On the shoulder of the body, four small loops of darker glass were applied, three of which still hold original decorative glass bells with clappers. Each bell is suspended by a simple colorless glass chain consisting of two figure-eight shaped glass links. This vessel is classified as Bulbous Bottle I A 2 a.

Published ReferencesRichter, Gisela M.A., "The Curtis Collection of Ancient Glass," Art in America, vol. 2, 1914, repr. fig. 13, p. 83.

Grose, David, "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 89, repr. fig. 29.