Unguent Bottle (Aryballos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece

DateLate 6th through 5th century BCE

DimensionsH: 2 5/16 in. (5.9 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.5 cm); Diam: 1 13/16 in. (4.6 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.97

Not on View

DescriptionThis unguent bottle (aryballos) has a blue ground with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. It features a broad, inward-sloping rim-disk, a cylindrical neck, an obtuse- to right-angled shoulder, and an ovoid body tapering to a convex pointed bottom. Two vertically oriented blue ring handles with knobbed tails—carelessly formed—extend from the shoulder to the underside of the rim-disk. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A second, marvered opaque yellow thread begins at the top of the neck and is wound spirally, first in several horizontal lines, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern extending to the middle of the body. There, a marvered opaque turquoise-blue thread is added, intermingling with the yellow thread. Below this, additional marvered opaque yellow and turquoise-blue threads are wound in a few loosely executed wavy, nearly horizontal lines. The vessel is core-formed, with applied rim-disk and handles, and applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Short vertical indentations on the body are the result of tooling the zigzag decoration.

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. 120, p. 151-152.

Ng, Diana Y., The Art of the Everyday: Objects from Ancient Daily Life, Dearborn, Regents of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, 2019, pp. 96-101, repr. (col.) 97.

Exhibition HistoryDearborn, Michigan, Berkowitz Gallery, University of Michigan, Art of the Everyday: Objects from Ancient Daily Life, Apr. 25-Jul. 5, 2019.Comparative ReferencesSee also Hayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, fig. 14, p. 11.