Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italian

DateMid-4th through early 3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm); Rim Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.163

Not on View

DescriptionAlabastron with a cobalt-blue ground and decoration in opaque white (appearing pale blue) and opaque yellow. The vessel features a thick, moderately broad horizontal rim-disk with a rounded edge, a cylindrical neck, and a pronounced, nearly right-angled shoulder. The straight-sided cylindrical body tapers inward near the base and terminates in a convex bottom, flat on one side. Two small cobalt-blue lugs are positioned below the shoulder, each bearing a shallow depression facing upward. An opaque white thread, marvered, is attached at the rim and trails diagonally across the neck to the shoulder, where it is wound once around the body. From there, it is tooled into a feather pattern extending down to the lower body, finishing with two horizontal windings near the base. A marvered opaque yellow thread begins at the level of the lugs and is interwoven with the white in alternating bands that continue to the basal angle. Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also includes an applied rim-disk and lugs, as well as applied marvered threads.

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

Grose, David F., "The Origins and Early History of Glass," in The History of Glass, eds. Dan Klein and Ward Lloyd, 1984, p. 17, ill.

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. 132, p. 156, repr. (col.) p. 102.

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

Jones, Janet Duncan, "Glass Vessels from Gordion: Trade and Influence along the Royal Road," in Kealhofer, Lisa, ed., The Archeology of Midas and the Phrygians: Recent Work at Gordion, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 2005, p. 103, fig. 8-2.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Hayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, fig. 29, pp. 13-14.