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Unguent bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
DateLate 6th -early 5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm); Rim Diam: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Diam: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm)
MediumCore-formed glass; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads; distinct tooling marks at the junction of the rim and neck.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.341
Not on View
DescriptionSmall alabastron. Blue ground with opaque white and opaque yellow decoration. Outsplayed rim-disk, tapering diagonally inward; funnel-shaped neck, cylindrical within; rounded shoulder; elongated oval body with upward taper and fairly straight sides; convex bottom. Below the shoulder, two blue vertical ring handles with knobbed tails. A partly marvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; below an opaque white thread, marvered, begun on the neck and tooled into an inverted festoon pattern from the top of the shoulder to just above the bottom.
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. 93, p. 142, repr. (col.) p. 98.

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