Gold-Band Bottle

Place of OriginLikely Italy

DateEarly to mid-1st century CE

DimensionsH: 5.7 cm (2 1/4 in.); Rim Diam: 2.4 cm (15/16 in.); Max Diam (body): 5.5 cm (2 3/16 in.)

MediumMosaic glass technique; cast, lathe-cut grooves and rotary-polished

ClassificationGlass

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

Object number

1967.9

Not on View

DescriptionThis small, globular vessel features a flat bottom, an obtuse-angled shoulder, a cylindrical neck, and a horizontal rim that slopes obliquely inward. The body is composed of fused vertical bands of mosaic glass in a repeating pattern of golden-brown outlined in opaque white, dark blue backed by opaque white, and light green backed by opaque yellow. Interspersed among these colors are bands of colorless glass encasing shattered gold leaf. The exterior surface is rotary-polished and decorated with nine horizontal lathe-cut grooves: two on the rim, two on the shoulder, two at the widest diameter, two near the base, and one circular groove at the center of the bottom.

Label TextThe flourishing Roman glass industry explored in the late 1st century B.C. the possibilities of color, shape, and pattern offered by glass. This stunning little bottle is proof of the creativity of Roman glassmakers. Made with a variation of the mosaic glass technique (see the label for the Ribbed Bowl nearby), the bottle features not only the bands and canes of glass used to create the characteristic undulating patterns, but also one band of colorless glass with gold foil trapped between its layers. When the bottle was heated and shaped, the thin foil fractured and flowed with the surrounding glass.Published ReferencesSangiorgi, Giorgio. Collezione di Vetri Antichi dalle Origini al V Secolo D.C. Milan and Rome: Casa Editrice d'Arte Bestetti e Tumminelli, 1914, no. 302, pl. XXXIX.

Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," Museum News, vol. 56, no. 3, 1978, pp. 76–77, fig. 11.

Grose, David F., "The Formation of the Roman Glass Industry," Archaeology, vol. 36, no. 4, 1983, p. 40 (repr.). Grose, David F., "Innovation and Change in Ancient Technologies: The Anomalous Case of the Roman Glass Industry," in High-technology Ceramics, Westerville, OH, 1986, p. 71, fig. 9, p. 72.

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, 1989, pp. 338-339, cat. no. 605, repr. (col.) p. 239.

Battie, David and Simon Cottle, eds., Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Glass, London, 1991, repr. p. 29 (col.).

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, repr. (col.) fig. 6.1, p. 29.