Jar with Basket Handle

Place of OriginRoman Empire, from coastal Syria or Palestine

DateLate 4th-5th century CE

DimensionsH: 9 3/16 in. (18.5 cm)

MediumColorless glass with greenish tinge, applied trails of dark greenish blue glass; blown, trail-decorated and tooled

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1211

Not on View

DescriptionThis jar with a basket handle is free-blown, trail-decorated, and tooled from medium thick transparent natural pale green glass (5 G 7/2) with small bubbles, black specks, and visible blowing spirals; the translucent dusky green handles, coils, trails, and thread (near 5 G 3/2) add decorative contrast. The pontil mark measures about 1.5 cm in diameter. The collar rim is rounded in flame with an open cutout below. A deeply concave neck transitions smoothly to a strongly sloped shoulder and a bulbous body with its greatest diameter below the middle. The jar stands on a high pushed-in base with a hollow tubular base ring. Nine coil handles are applied to the shoulder, touched down to the cutout, and attached to the rim with three pinched folds each. A basket handle features a double layer of open network trailing with a crimped trail above folded loops. Around the foot, nine decorative coil handles are attached to the lower body and base ring in the same wishbone pattern. On the body, an irregular thick zigzag thread rises into three revolutions around the shoulder. This object is classified as a Jar Class II G 2 b with blue zigzag.

Published ReferencesRichter, G. M. A., "The Curtis Collection of Ancient Glass," Art in America 2, 1914, p. 79, fig. 17.

Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," TMA Museum News 1978, p. 82, fig. 28.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, repr. (col.) p. 49.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 91, repr. (col.).