Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Image Not Available

Expand

IIIFView PDF

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

DescriptionThis small alabastron features an opaque dark brown ground streaked with opaque red, decorated with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue threads. It has a broad horizontal rim-disk, cylindrical neck, rounded shoulder, and a cylindrical body that tapers slightly upward. The base is nearly flat with a shallow convex curve. Two vertical ring handles in opaque dark brown, each with a knobbed tail, are placed below the shoulder and set at slightly different heights. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. Below this, a second opaque yellow thread and an opaque turquoise-blue thread, both marvered, begin on the underside of the rim and are wound spirally in narrow, nearly horizontal lines. These are then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern extending to just above the base, where the yellow thread continues in horizontal lines to the center of the bottom. Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also includes applied rim-disk, handles, and 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.