Bulbous Bottle with Two Handles

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Bulbous Bottle with Two Handles

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Syria or Palestine

Date1st century CE

DimensionsH: 2 29/32 in. (7.4 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.6 cm); Max Diam: 1 5/8 in. (4.2 cm); Base Diam: 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)

MediumGlass; mold blown and tooled

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.680

Not on View

DescriptionBulbous bottle with two handles of transparent pale olive glass (near 10 Y 6/2) with similarly colored translucent handles. Medium thin glass with a few pinprick and small spherical bubbles. The neck is free-blown, while the ovoid body was blown into a two-part vertical mold (MCT VIII), leaving 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 for most of its circumference. The cylindrical neck transitions to an ovoid body with a base intended to be flat. Two coil handles were applied to the shoulder and attached halfway up the neck, positioned about one-third of the distance between seams; the tips of the handles were drawn out thin and folded back to the base of each handle. 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 raised ridge.

Published ReferencesStern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries, Rome, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1995, p. 153, no. 56.

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