Tall Square Bottle (Mercury Bottle)

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Tall Square Bottle (Mercury Bottle)

Place of OriginAncient Rome

Date1st-2nd century CE

DimensionsH: 8 in. (19.60 cm); Rim Diam: 2 1/8 in. (5.32 cm); Base Depth: 1 1/4 in. (3.10 cm); Base W: 1 1/4 in. (3.10 cm); Shoulder W: 1 1/2 in. (3.89 cm)

MediumGlass; mold-blown natural green glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineMr. and Mrs. Rabi Raffi Soleimani

Object number

1987.216

Not on View

DescriptionVery thick glass. A few small bubbles, spherical in body and vertically elongated in neck. Transparent to translucent natural light olive (10 Y 5/4). Body blown into one-part patterned mold. Neck and mouth free-blown. No pontil mark. Wide hollow rim, folded outward, downward, upward, inward, and flattened to form a broad brim. Tall concave neck broadening toward shoulder. Concave shoulder with sharp angular transition to body. Square body tapering downward. Slightly concave base. On underside of base, a mold-blown figure of Mercury in three-quarter view to left, dressed in short tunic with a traveler's cloak over left shoulder and holding a triangular object (cornucopia? caduceus?) in his outstretched right hand. In corners clockwise from top left: G F I H. CLASSIFICATION: Isings 1957, Form 84.

Published ReferencesStern, E. Marianne, "Roman Glassblowing in a Cultural Context," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 103, no. 3, July 1999, p. 467, fig. 27, p. 468.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Out of Sight, June 18-Aug. 29, 2010 (no cat.).