Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginReportedly found in Italy

DateMid-4th through early 3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 7 2/3 in. (19.5 cm); Diam: 2 15/16 in. (7.5 cm)

MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1967.3

Not on View

DescriptionThis is a tall, cylindrical vessel known as an alabastron. It has a wide, flat rim-disk, a short cylindrical neck, and a convex bottom. The body is made of translucent, golden-brown glass. Two small, vertical ring handles made of the same brown glass are applied to the vessel's shoulder area. The entire body is decorated with a dragged feather pattern created by fine, wavy lines of opaque yellow and opaque pale blue glass, which are arranged in seven distinct vertical panels. An unmarvered (raised) thread of opaque yellow glass is applied at the edge of the rim. The vessel was manufactured using the core-forming technique

Published ReferencesThe Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, OH, 1969, p. 18, ill.

"Treasures for Toledo" Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 12, 1969, p. 92, ill.

Hayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 13.

Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 68 and cover.

Grose, David F., "The Origins and Early History of Glass," in The History of Glass, eds. Dan Klein and Ward Lloyd, London, 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. 122, p. 152, repr. (col.) p. 100.