Quadruple Tube with Looped Trails and Basket Handle

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Quadruple Tube with Looped Trails and Basket Handle

Place of OriginAncient Rome, Palestine

DateSixth to early seventh century

DimensionsH: 9 7/8 in. (25.0 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm); Body Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)

MediumGlass; free-blown and tooled.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1313

Not on View

DescriptionThis free-blown and tooled glass vessel, classified as a Quadruple Tube VIIIG4a, consists of a rectangular body formed by four tubular compartments. The tubes narrow slightly toward the waist and broaden toward a flattened base. The hollow rim is folded outward, upward, inward, and downward. The glass is yellowish-green (between 10 GY 4/4 and 10 GY 5/2) with similarly colored handles, looped trails, and thread decoration. The vessel is made of medium thin glass with the fabric obscured by weathering. The pontil mark, approximately 1.3 cm in diameter, has been ground off. The body is pinched twice lengthwise. Four looped trails are set diagonally to the compartment divisions and applied to the lower body just above the base. Each trail touches down to the thread decoration five times (one trail touches down six times) and attaches to the rim to form six or seven irregular loops. A three-dimensional, triple-tiered curving basket handle is made from five coils with U-shaped or flattened sections. The first tier consists of two parallel cross-elements, one extending from the top of the right front looped trail to the left front trail, and the other from the rear left trail to the rear right trail. The second tier mirrors this structure with two parallel cross-elements arching between the lower elements, attached at their upper outside edges. The third tier consists of a single coil applied to the top of the left coil of the second tier and attached to the right coil. Excess glass at the tips of the handles and trails is drawn back against the trails and handles. On the body, from just above the base to about 2.3 cm below the rim, at least thirteen revolutions of thick thread are trailed upward from left to right. The thread decoration was applied after the body was pinched.