Double kohl tube with tiered handle

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Syro-Palestinian coast

Date5th-6th century CE

DimensionsH: 13 1/8 in. (33.7 cm); Rim Diam: 2 1/8 in. (5.3 cm); W (handle): 4 15/16 in. (12.6 cm)

MediumLight blue-green glass; blown, trail decorated, and tooled

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1294

Not on View

DescriptionThis free-blown, trail-decorated, and tooled glass vessel, classified as a Double Tube VIIC2a, consists of two flattened tubular compartments that curve inward toward a round base. The hollow rim is folded inward and downward. The glass is transparent to translucent natural light bluish-green (between 10 G 6/2 and natural range) with similarly colored handles and thread decoration. The glass is medium thin with vertically elongated bubbles in the body and black specks in the handles. A pontil mark about 2.1 cm in diameter is present, along with tool marks on the basket handle. The body is pinched once lengthwise. Two angular coil side handles are attached to the upper body and secured to the rim. A two-dimensional quadruple-tiered basket handle, made from six separate coils with U-shaped sections, connects the side handles in a flat, layered arrangement. The first tier consists of a central M-shaped coil attached to the top of the left side handle, curving up over the mouth of the left tube, touching down to the dividing wall, then curving up over the right tube and attaching to the top and side of the right side handle. Two side coils are added to the tops of the side handles, drawn upward and attached to the arches of the central coil. The second tier is a single coil applied to the outside corner of the left coil of the first tier, which touches down, curves over the middle of the central coil, touches down again, and connects to the outside corner of the right coil. The third tier is an M-shaped coil attached to the left outside edge of the second tier, touching down to the middle arch and attaching to the right outside edge. The fourth tier is a single coil attached to the right outside edge of the third tier and secured to the left side. Between the base and rim, about ten revolutions of thick trail decoration are melted into the surface; the exact point and direction of application cannot be determined. The thread decoration was applied before the body was pinched.

Published ReferencesPage, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 47-48, repr. (col.) fig. 17.2, p. 48.