Pilgrim Jar with Jewish Symbols

Place of Originprobably Jerusalem, Palestine

Dateabout 578-629

Dimensions3 1/4 × 2 3/8 × 3 in. (8.3 × 6 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1358

Not on View

DescriptionFree and mold-blown medium thin glass. Fabric cannot be determined because of dark color. Transparent to translucent dark brownish orange. Neck and mouth free blown. Body blown into a mold with designs in low relief on the interior. Mold seams cannot be detected. Relief crisp. Ring pontil mark ca. 1.5 cm in diameter. Funnel mouth, with partly hollow rim folded outward, upward, inward, and downward to narrowest point of opening. Horizontal shoulder. Hexagonal body. Flat base. On the body, six decorated rectangular panels with designs in intaglio; each panel bordered by recessed dots. On the panels, from left to right: 1, menorah with flames on a three-legged stand; 2, X-shaped element with a stylized heart-shaped leaf at the end of each arm and at the intersection a horizontal cross bar with a loop at each end; 3, two concentric lozenges with a recessed dot at each corner of the panel; 4, two concentric lozenges bordered by small recessed dots and with a crescent in each corner of the panel; 5, empty aedicula consisting of columns with double-tiered bases and cushion-shaped capitals supporting a half-round arch decorated with recessed dots; 6, stylized palm tree. Underside of base undecorated. Transparent to translucent dark brownish orange. Neck and mouth free blown. Body blown into a mold with designs in low relief in the interior. Mold seams cannot be detected. Relief crisp. Ring pontil mark ca. 1.5 cm in diameter. Funnel mouth, with partly hollow rim folded outward, upward, inward, and downward to narrowest point of opening. Horizontal shoulder. Hexagonal body. Flat base. On the body, six decorated rectangular panels with designs in intaglio; each panel bordered by recessed dots. On the panels, from left to right: 1, menorah with flames on a three-legged stand; 2, X-shaped element with a stylized heart-shaped leaf at the end of each arm and at the intersection a horizontal cross bar with a loop at each end; 3, two concentric lozenges with a recessed dot at each corner of the panel; 4, two concentric lozenges bordered by small recessed dots and with a crescent in each corner of the panel; 5, empty aedicula consisting of columns with double-tiered bases and cushion-shaped capitals supporting a half-round arch decorated with recessed dots; 6, stylized palm tree. Underside of base undecorated. CLASSIFICATION Barag B V 1

Published ReferencesReifenberg, A., Ancient Hebrew Arts, New York, 1950, repr 53.

Goodenough, Erwin R., Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period I: The Archaeological Evidence from Palestine, New York, 1953, p. 171; III, figs. 420-425.

Roth, Cecil, ed., Jewish Art: An Illustrated History, New York, 1961, repr. p. 243.

Barag, Dan P., "Glass Pilgrim Vessels from Jerusalem, Pts. I," Journal of Glass Studies, 12, 1970, p. 56 (B V 1), 60, fig. 19.

Renov, Israel, Preliminary Report on the Iconography of Jewish Glass Vessels (Readings in Glass History 4, Jerusalem 1974) p. 19, 21.

Stern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: the First through Sixth Centuries, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider in Association with the Toledo Museum of Art, Rome, Italy, 1995, cat. no. 173, pp. 256-257, color pl. 28, p. 63.