Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
Date5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 3 11/16 in. (9.4 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); Diam: 1 in. (2.5 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.177
Not on View
DescriptionSmall alabastron. Opaque dark brown ground streaked with opaque red, with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck; rounded shoulder; cylindrical body with slight upward taper; almost flat bottom with slight convex curve. Below the shoulder, two opaque dark brown vertical ring handles with knobbed tails set at different heights on the body. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow thread and an opaque turquoise-blue thread, both marvered, begun on the underside of the rim and wound spirally, at first in narrow, almost horizontal lines, then tooled into an even, close-set zigzag pattern to just above the bottom, where the opaque yellow thread is again wound in horizontal lines to the center of the bottom. Core-formed glass; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.
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. 88, p. 141.Comparative ReferencesSee also von Saldern, Axel, et al., Gläser Der Antike, Sammlung Oppenländer, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1974, fig. 185, p. 57.
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
4th-early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
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