Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece

Date5th through early 4th centuries BCE

DimensionsH: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm); Diam: 2 in. (5.1 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.168

Not on View

DescriptionThis amphoriskos has a blue ground with opaque white decoration. It features a broad, inward-sloping rim-disk, a rather tall cylindrical neck, an obtuse-angled shoulder, a conical body, and a circular blue base-knob with a rounded edge. Two blue vertical strap handles extend from the shoulder to the top of the neck. An opaque white thread, partly marvered, is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A second marvered opaque white thread begins on the neck and is wound spirally to the junction of the shoulder and body. Below this, the same thread is tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern, then continues in nearly horizontal spiral lines to just above the base-knob. Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also includes applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob, along with applied marvered and unmarvered threads. A tooling mark is visible on the base-knob, and vertical indentations on the body result from the tooling of the zigzag pattern.

Published ReferencesLuckner, Kurt, "Greek Gold Jewelry," TMA Museum News 17, 1974, pp. 4-5, ill.

Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," TMA Museum News 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 67 and cover.

Grose, David, "The Origins and early history of glass," in The History of Glass, London, 1984, repr. (col.) p. 17.

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

Groffi, T. and J. Heus, Beschavingen 2, Antwerp, 1990, repr. p. 240.

Exhibition HistoryCooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, Miniatures, no cat., 1983, p. 91, ill.