Bulbous Bowl

Place of OriginRoman Empire

Date3rd-4th century CE

DimensionsH: 2 5/8 in. (6.6 cm); Rim Diam: 3 9/16 in. (9.1 cm); Body Diam: 3 1/16 in. (7.8 cm); Base Diam: 1 9/16 in. (4.4 cm)

MediumGlass; free-blown and tooled.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1327

Not on View

DescriptionThis bowl is made of medium thin glass with pinprick bubbles visible in the body. The glass is transparent natural pale green (5 G 7/2) and decorated with a moderate blue-green thread (5 BG 4/6). It was free-blown, and there is a pontil mark about 1.1 cm in diameter. A thread was carefully added as decoration. The rim is outsplayed and rounded in the flame. The curved walls slope gently toward the base. The high-domed base is pushed in, with flaring sides and a hollow tubular base ring. On the lower half of the body, six revolutions of thread sit above a precise zigzag pattern. The thread decoration begins above the base with a fifteen-fold zigzag trailed from right to left, continuing with a simple trail for about one and a quarter revolutions. After an interval of about 1 cm, a second thread continues the spiral. This vessel is classified as Isings, 1957, Form 87 (variation).

Published ReferencesPuma, Richard Daniel de, Art In Roman Life: Villa to Grave, Rome, L'erma di Bretschneider, 2009, p. 94, no. 97.