Fluted Bowl
Fluted Bowl
Place of OriginProbably Syro-Palestinian region
DateMid-second to early first century BCE
DimensionsH: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm); W: 4 9/16 in. (11.6 cm); D: 3/16 in. (0.4 cm)
MediumProbably sagged; rotary-polished on the interior, the top, and the outside of the rim; cut on the exterior.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.1071
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
DescriptionOvoid bowl made of natural bluish-green glass. The rim is vertical with a slightly inturned, rounded edge; the sides curve outward in a convex shape and the base is also convex. The exterior is decorated with two narrow horizontal grooves cut in a band just below the rim, and another three horizontal grooves around the upper body. Beneath these, a wide, shallow horizontal depression encircles the bowl. Below this, vertical cut flutes taper downward to a band of three narrow horizontal grooves cut around the lower body. On the underside, a cut six-pointed star is formed by three short intersecting strokes.
Label TextToday we are so surrounded by mass-produced glass vessels that we rarely think of glass as a luxury item. When this item was made, however, it would have been the equivalent of a fine crystal goblet. Its production was incredibly labor-intensive. First, the basic shape would have been made by heating glass until it sagged over a bowl-shaped form in a furnace. Next, the interior would have been rotary polished. Finally, the pattern of horizontal bands and vertical flutes would have been cut using an abrasive wheel, much like how cut crystal is made today.Published ReferencesRiefstahl, Rudolph M., "Ancient and Near Eastern Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 4, no. 2, 1961, p. 33, ill.
Weinberg, Gladys Davidson, "Hellenistic Glass Vessels from the Athenian Agora," Hesperia 30, 1961, p. 386, pl. 93,c (former TMA acc. no. 354-732 cited).
Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "The Complexities of Ancient Glass," Apollo 86, 1967, p. 429, fig. 2.
The Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1969, p. 20, ill.
Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 75, fig. 10.
Grose, David F., "The Syro-Palestinian Glass Industry in the Later Hellenistic Period," MUSE 13, 1979, pp. 56 and 60.
Grose, David F., "The Origins and Early History of Glass," in The History of Glass, eds. Dan Klein and Ward Lloyd, London, 1984, p. 21, ill.
Grose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B. C. to A. D. 50, New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 211, p. 204, ill. p. 411.
Mid-second to early first century BCE
Late first century BCE to mid-first century CE
Late first century BCE to mid-first century CE
Mid-second to early first century BCE
Mid-second to early first century BCE
Mid-second to early first century BCE
Mid-second to early first century BCE
Late first century BCE to mid-first century CE
Late first century BCE to mid-first century CE
Late first century BCE to mid-first century CE
Late first century BCE to mid-first century CE
Probably first century BCE, possibly later
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