Jar (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly Rhodes

Date5th century BCE

DimensionsH: 2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm); Rim Diam: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Body Diam: 1 9/16 in. (3.95 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.161

Not on View

DescriptionThis small amphoriskos has an opaque medium to dark brown ground streaked with opaque red, and is decorated with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue threads. The vessel features a short, outsplayed rim-disk, cylindrical neck, obtuse-angled shoulder, and a top-shaped body. The circular base-knob, made of the same brown glass streaked with red, has a rounded edge and a small central hole. Two vertical strap handles, also streaked with red, extend from the shoulder to the upper neck. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread and an unmarvered opaque turquoise-blue thread are attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A marvered opaque yellow thread, begun on the shoulder, is spiraled in horizontal lines and tooled into an irregular zigzag where it mingles with a marvered opaque turquoise-blue thread. Below this, another marvered opaque yellow thread is wound horizontally twice around the body. Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also features applied strap handles and applied marvered and unmarvered threads that have been tooled.

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. 104, p. 146, repr. (col.) p. 98.

Arts, P.L.W., "A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC - 500 AD," ANTIEK Lochem, 2000, p. 82.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 22, repr. (col.) fig. 3E, p. 23.