Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Syro-Palestinian region
Date2nd-1st century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 5/8 in. (11.7 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm); Diam: 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.95
Not on View
DescriptionAmphoriskos. Dark, perhaps yellow-green ground (appearing black), with opaque white and opaque yellow decoration. Broad inward-sloping rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck with slight upward taper; obtuse-angled shoulder; straight-sided ovoid body; convex pointed bottom; circular dark yellow-green pad-base, flat but uneven on its underside, with a rounded edge. Two vertical dark yellow-green s-shaped handles extend from the shoulder to the underside of the rim-disk, joined to the shoulder and lower neck and rising to just above the rim-disk. A marvered opaque white thread and a marvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk and wound spirally, at first in almost horizontal lines around the upper part of the neck, then tooled into a festoon pattern around the rest of the neck and shoulder, and finally tooled into a feather pattern over the entire body to the pad-base. Core-formed glass; trailed and applied decoration; applied handles and base.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, pp. 18-19.
Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," in TMA 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, Hudson Hills Press in Association with the Toledo Museum of Art, New York, 1989, cat. no. 177, p. 172-173, repr. (col.) p. 108, drawing, p. 408.
Arts, P.L.W., "A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC - 500 AD," ANTIEK Lochem, 2000, p. 84.
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
2nd through mid- 1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
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