Miniature Amphora in a Wicker Basket

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Miniature Amphora in a Wicker Basket

Place of OriginLebanon, reportedly from Sidon

DateFirst half of the 1st century

DimensionsH: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm); Diam: 1 3/4 in. (4.5 cm); Rim Diam: 13/16 in. (2 cm); Base Diam: 15/16 in. (2.4 cm)

MediumMold-blown glass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1951.375

Not on View

DescriptionA miniature mold-blown glass amphora of translucent pale yellow ("light golden") glass. The ovoid body and neck were blown into a two-part mold with a continuous vertical seam. The surface is covered in a high-relief pattern imitating a wicker basket weave. A horizontal band of laurel leaves and berries encircles the central body; uniquely, the leaves point to the right on one side and to the left on the other. Two small coil handles are attached to the underside of the rim and drawn down toward the shoulder; their lower terminals are flattened but do not fully fuse with the body wall ("floating handles"). The rim is rounded and thickened; the base is flat.

Label TextThis tiny bottle is a glass "toy" imitating a heavy industrial object. It is shaped like a large transport amphora encased in a protective wicker basket—a common sight on Roman merchant ships—but shrunk down to the size of a perfume flask. It was made in a specific studio known to archaeologists as the "Workshop of the Floating Handles." If you look closely at the handles, you will see they hang down from the rim but barely touch the shoulder of the bottle. This distinctive "flaw" suggests the glass body had cooled too quickly for the handles to stick properly. This piece is also a "mismatch": the mold-maker accidentally combined two different mold halves, causing the leaf pattern to point right on one side and left on the other.Published ReferencesStern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries, Rome, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1995, p. 154, no. 59, color pl. 11.

Stern, E. Marianne, "The Workshop of the floating handles," in Gnade, M. Stips Votiva, Papers presented to C. M. Stibbe, Amsterdam 1991, pp. 199-204, fig. 2 [article in pam. file].

Comparative ReferencesSee also Axel von Saldern, et al; Glaser der Antike (Sammlung Oppenlander); Hamburg, Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, 1974; fig. 431, p. 150.