Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
Date5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm); Rim Diam: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); Diam: 1 in. (2.5 cm)
Mediumcore-formed glass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.83
Not on View
DescriptionThis alabastron is made from opaque red-brown glass with applied decoration in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue. The vessel has a broad horizontal rim-disk, a cylindrical neck that tapers slightly upward, and a pronounced rounded shoulder. The cylindrical body tapers slightly toward a convex bottom. Two unusually large vertical ring handles of red-brown glass, with knobbed tails, are applied below the shoulder at differing heights.
An unmarvered yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk, while two additional marvered threads—one yellow and one turquoise-blue—begin on the shoulder. These threads are spiraled in horizontal bands and then tooled into a tight zigzag pattern that extends nearly to the base, where they resume in horizontal lines. The decorative threads and the vessel's tooling produce vertical indentations on the body. The vessel was core-formed and finished with applied rim-disk, handles, and decorative threads.
Published ReferencesJohn W. Hayes, Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, pp. 9-10.
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. 85, p. 140, repr. (col.) p. 97.
5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
late 6th-5th centuries BCE
Late 6th through 5th centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
5th century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Membership
Become a TMA member today
Support TMA
Help support the TMA mission