Unguent Bottle (Oinochoe)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes

DateLate 6th through 5th century BCE

DimensionsH: 4 13/16 in. (12.2 cm); Rim Diam: 1 9/16 in. (4 cm); Diam: 2 3/4 in. (7 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.150

Not on View

DescriptionOinochoe. Dark blue ground with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad trefoil rim-disk; cylindrical neck with the lip of vessel visible within; obtuse-angled junction with a rounded shoulder; ovoid body; convex bottom; short, outsplayed dark blue foot, concave on its underside. A dark blue strap handle extends from the shoulder to the rim-disk; the handle arches well above the rim-disk. An unmarvered opaque turquoise-blue thread streaked with opaque red attached at the edge of the rim-disk; another unmarvered opaque turquoise-blue thread wound horizontally once around the middle of the neck; an opaque yellow thread, marvered, begun on the shoulder and wound spirally, at first in horizontal lines, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around the middle of the body, where an opaque turquoise-blue thread, also marvered, is added, mingling with the yellow thread; below this, two opaque yellow threads, with an opaque turquoise-blue thread between them, all marvered, are each wound horizontally once around the body; an opaque turquoise-blue thread, unmarvered, is wound around the edge of the foot. An oval, opaque yellow dot is partly marvered into the lower handle attachment. Core-formed glass; applied rim-disk, handle, and foot; applied marvered and unmarvered threads; tooling marks on the upperside of the foot. Slight vertical indentations on the body 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. 114, p. 149, repr. (col.) p. 96.

Stern, E. Marianne, "Ancient Glass in Athenian Temple Treasures," in Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 41, 1999, p. 36-7, fig. 14.

Jones, Janet Duncan, "Glass Vessels from Gordion: Trade and Influence Along the Royal Road," in Kealhofer, Lisa, ed., The Archeology and Anthropology, 2005, p. 103, fig. 8-2.