Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece

DateLate 6th - 5th century BCE

DimensionsH: 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm); Rim Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Diam: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.162

Not on View

DescriptionSmall amphoriskos with a cobalt-blue ground and decoration in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue. It has a broad, inward-sloping rim-disk and a tall cylindrical neck. The shoulder angles unevenly—almost right-angled on one side and obtuse on the other—and leads into a conical body. The circular base-knob has an uneven, rounded edge. Two cobalt-blue vertical strap handles extend from the shoulder to the neck, one reaching the top and the other stopping at the upper neck. A partly marvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the rim. Two additional marvered threads, one wide and yellow, the other turquoise-blue, begin on the shoulder and are wound spirally in horizontal lines before being tooled into a close-set, irregular zigzag pattern that continues to the lower body. At the base, the threads resume a few final horizontal turns. Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also features an applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob, as well as 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. 99, p. 144, repr. (col.) p. 96.