Bulbous Jar with Two Handles
Bulbous Jar with Two Handles
Place of OriginRoman Empire
Datemid-4th to mid-5th century
DimensionsH: 2 3/4 in. (6.9 cm); Rim Diam: 2 3/8 in. (6.0 cm); Body Diam: 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm)
MediumGlass; free-blown and tooled, decoration hot-tooled on.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.1067
Not on View
DescriptionThis small bulbous jar was free-blown from medium thin glass. Small bubbles and visible blowing spirals are present, along with black specks in the thread. The glass is transparent natural grayish yellow-green (5 GY 7/2), while the applied handles and thread are translucent grayish blue-green (5 BG 5/2). The pontil mark measures approximately 1.0 cm in diameter and sits over a reamer mark. Excess glass at the tips of the handles has been folded up and back against the top of each handle.
The jar has a rim that was rounded and thickened in the flame. The funnel-shaped neck curves gently into the sloping shoulder. Its bulbous body reaches its greatest diameter at the midpoint. The base is concave with a distinct kick. Two coil handles are applied to the upper body and attached to the side and top of the rim, where they are folded upward, outward, and inward to form a small closed loop.
Decorative threadwork includes an irregular zigzag with twenty-six segments on the underside of the body, continuing above the midpoint as two spiral revolutions that partly overlap the zigzag. The rim also bears a zigzag with at least forty-eight segments, which is covered by three revolutions of thread.
This vessel is classified as Jar Class I C 4 a with blue zigzags.
mid-4th to mid-5th century
mid-4th to mid-5th century
Second to third quarter of 4th century CE
mid-4th to 5th century
Late 4th to early 5th century
Second to third quarter of 4th century CE
4th century
Late 4th to late 5th century
Late 4th to late 5th century
Probably mid-4th to mid-5th century
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