Unguent Bottle (Oinochoe)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

DateMid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE

DimensionsH: 4 15/16 in. (12.6 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm); Diam: 2 5/16 in. (5.8 cm); Base Diam: 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.135

Not on View

DescriptionThis oinochoe, made using the core-forming technique, features a cobalt-blue ground decorated with opaque yellow (appearing orangish) and opaque white threads. It features a broad trefoil rim-disk; a tall, uneven cylindrical neck; an obtuse-angled shoulder; a fairly straight-sided piriform body; and a circular cobalt-blue pad-base with a flat underside and rounded edge. A cobalt-blue strap handle extends from below the shoulder to the underside of the rim-disk and, as restored, rises just above it. Decorative threads include an unmarvered opaque yellow thread at the edge of the rim-disk, followed by a second unmarvered opaque yellow thread wound spirally around the upper neck. A partly marvered opaque white thread begins at the junction of the neck and shoulder, wound spirally in nearly horizontal lines, then tooled into a shallow, uneven wavy or zigzag pattern around the middle and lower parts of the body, and finally wound horizontally to just above the pad-base. A third opaque yellow thread, marvered, begins below the shoulder and winds in bands with the white thread; a fourth, also marvered, yellow thread is wound twice around the lower body. A fifth opaque yellow thread, unmarvered, is wound around the edge of the pad-base. Vertical indentations on the body were caused by the tooling of the zigzags.

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. 152, p. 163.