Mount for Portrait Bust

Place of OriginProbably Italy

DateEarly first to fourth century CE

DimensionsH: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); W: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); Max Depth: 1/2 in. (1.3 cm)

MediumDrapery of bust with head missing, cut in translucent cobalt-blue glass. Cast in an open, one-piece mold; cut and drilled; polished on all upper surfaces and probably on the underside.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1687

Not on View

DescriptionMount for portrait bust. Opaque cobalt blue. Mount in the likeness of the upper torso of a male figure wearing a tunic with curving folds across the chest and an outer garment with deep vertical folds over the right shoulder. The head was once attached with dowels by means of three holes drilled through the concave recess where the neck and head originally sat. A narrow horizontal groove marks the junction of the bust with the flat bottom of the mount.

Published ReferencesGrose, 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. 674, p. 371.