Unguent Bottle (Stamnos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italian

DateLate 4th-early 3rd BCE

DimensionsH: 3 7/16 (8.7 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm); Max Diam: 2 7/16 in. (6.2 cm); Base Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.1 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.128

Not on View

DescriptionStamnos. Cobalt-blue ground with opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad, uneven rim-disk, sloping inward; cylindrical neck with slight upward taper; obtuse-angled shoulder; bulbous body; convex bottom; circular cobalt-blue pad-base with rounded edge, slightly concave on its underside. Two outsplayed cobalt-blue loop handles at the middle of the body, one of which is twisted with an opaque white thread, the other with opaque white and opaque turquoise-blue threads. A narrow opaque yellow thread, unmarvered, attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second unmarvered opaque yellow thread wound horizontally around the neck; two opaque white threads, both marvered, begun on the shoulder, with the uppermost combed into an inverted festoon pattern, the lower into a festoon pattern; below, a marvered opaque yellow thread begun and wound spirally in horizontal lines to the middle of the body, where a single opaque turquoise-blue thread is added; just below this, an opaque white thread, also marvered, is wound spirally, at first in horizontal lines, then tooled into a shallow zigzag pattern; below this, an opaque yellow and an opaque white thread, both marvered, each wound spirally in several horizontal lines. Core-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and pad-base; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.

Published ReferencesThe Toledo Museum of Art, A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "Ancient and Near Eastern Glass," in TMA Museum News 4, no. 2, 1967, p. 430, fig. 5.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1969, p. 19, ill.

Katz, Herbert and Marjorie Katz, Museum Adventures: An Introduction to Discovery, New York, 1969, p. 92, ill.

Hayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 12.

Wittmann, Otto, ed., The Toledo Museum of Art. A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1976, p. 2, ill.

Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," in TMA Museum News 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 68 and cover.

Harden, Donald B., "Study and Research on Ancient Glass: Past and Future," in Journal of Glass Studies 26, 1981, pp. 113-114.

Grose, David F., "The Origins and Early History of Glass," in The History of Glass, ed. 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. 155, p. 165, repr. (col.) p. 106.

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

Groen, Joop van der Groen and Hans van Rossum, Romeins Glas uit Particulier Bezit, Utrecht, Martijs, 2011, pp.16-17, repr. p. 17.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Fossing, Poul, Glass Vessels before Glassblowing, Copenhagen, 1940, p. 101, fig. 74. (a vessel in the British Museum with a similar shape, but different decoration)