Bulbous Bottle with Four Handles

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Bulbous Bottle with Four Handles

Place of OriginAncient Rome, probably Palestine

DateMid-fourth to fifth century

DimensionsH: 2 3/4 in. (7.0 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.5 cm); Body Diam: 1 5/8 in. (4.2 cm); Base Diam: 1 in. (2.5 cm)

MediumGlass; free blown and tooled.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1048

Not on View

DescriptionThis bulbous bottle with four handles (Multiple Handled Bottle Class IC2c-z) is made of thin glass. The glass is transparent natural grayish yellow green (near 5 GY 7/2) with translucent to opaque dusky blue green thread, handles, and coil base. The fabric of the glass cannot be determined because of weathering. The bottle is free-blown with a pontil mark approximately 0.9 cm in diameter. An added thread encircles the vessel. Excess glass at the tips of the handles is clipped off on two handles, drawn out thin and snapped off on a third, and folded back on the fourth handle. The rim is rounded in flame. It has a tubular neck with a gently sloping shoulder and a bulbous body with its greatest diameter just above the midpoint. The rounded bottom is finished with a coil base. Four angular coil handles are applied to the shoulder and attached halfway up the neck over the thread decoration. The tips of three handles are folded up against the neck, while the fourth is folded back against the handle and pinched. Around the mouth, there is a zigzag thread with thirteen segments. Over the zigzag and on the neck, six horizontal revolutions of thread are applied. On the body, an irregular zigzag thread with fifteen segments encircles the vessel.