Quadruple Tube with Looped Trails and Basket Handle

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Quadruple Tube with Looped Trails and Basket Handle

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Palestine

Date6th to early 7th century

DimensionsH: 10 7/16 in. (26.5 cm); Rim Diam: 1 9/16 in. (4 cm); Diam (handles): 2 5/16 in. (5.9 cm)

MediumGlass; free blown, tooled, trailed decoration

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1312

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DescriptionThis free-blown, tooled, and trailed glass vessel, classified as a Quadruple Tube VIIIG4a, consists of a rectangular body with four tubular compartments bundled together. The tubes narrow toward the waist and broaden toward a flattened base. The rim is folded upward, inward, and downward. The glass is transparent pale green (near 10 G 6/2) with translucent yellowish-green handles, trails, and thread decoration. The vessel is made of medium thin glass. The fabric cannot be determined because of weathering. The pontil mark is about 1.5 cm in diameter and has been ground off. The body is pinched twice lengthwise. Four looped trails are set diagonally to the divisions between the compartments and are applied to the lower body about 3.5 cm above the base. Each trail is touched down to the body three times, then attached to the rim to form four loops. A three-dimensional, triple-tiered basket handle is made from five separate coils with U-shaped sections. The first tier consists of two parallel cross-elements applied to the tops of diagonally opposite looped trails and attached to the adjacent trail to the left. The second tier consists of two similar parallel cross-elements arching between the lower tier elements and attached to their upper outside edges. The third tier consists of a single coil applied to the top of one element of the second tier and attached to the opposite element. Excess glass at the tips of the handles and trails is folded back against them. On the body, from below the lowest application points of one looped trail to about 2.0 cm below the rim, at least twelve revolutions of thin thread are trailed on from right to left. The thread decoration was applied after the body was pinched.