Bulbous Bottle with One Handle

Image Not Available

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Bulbous Bottle with One Handle

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Syria or Palestine

Date1st century CE

DimensionsH (including handle): 3 1/16 in. (7.8 cm); Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.7 cm)

MediumGlass; mold blown in a two-part mold, tooled.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.679

Not on View

DescriptionBulbous bottle with one handle of translucent streaked manganese-colored glass and a translucent streaked grayish blue handle. Medium thin glass; fabric cannot be determined because of weathering. The neck is free-blown, while the body was blown into a two-part vertical mold (MCT VIII O), with one continuous mold seam extending across the underside of the base. The mold edges were not carefully aligned, resulting in a base in two planes. The rim is folded outward, upward, and inward, except where the handle attaches. The cylindrical neck joins an ovoid body with a base intended to be flat. A bifurcated handle was applied to the shoulder, attached to the rim with a projecting thumbrest above, and positioned to one side of the mold seam; its tip was drawn out thin and folded back. Decorative friezes feature twenty-four downturned contiguous flutes on the upper body and twenty-nine upturned flutes on the lower body, joined by a central band of tendril scrolls bordered above and below by a narrow ridge and a wide shallow groove.

Published ReferencesStern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries, Rome, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1995, p. 152-153, no. 55.

Arts, P.L.W., "A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC - 500 AD," ANTIEK Lochem, 2000, p. 103.