Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Syro-Palestinian region

Date2nd through mid-1st century BCE

DimensionsH: 5 5/16 in. (13.5 cm); Diam: 15/16 in. (2.4 cm); Max Body Diam: 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm); Diam Pad-Base: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)

MediumCore-formed glass; applied rim-disk, handles, and pad-base; applied marvered threads.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.345

Not on View

DescriptionAmphoriskos. Blue ground with opaque white and opaque yellow decoration. Narrow rim-disk, uneven and sloping slightly inward; moderately tall cylindrical neck, tapering upward; vestigial shoulder visible only on the interior; straight-sided fusiform body; convex pointed bottom; circular blue pad-base, very uneven and slightly concave on its underside, with a rounded edge. Two vertical yellowish-green s-shaped handles extend from the upper body to the underside of the rim-disk, joined to the neck near its bottom and rising to just above the rim-disk. An opaque white and an opaque yellow thread, both marvered, attached to the upperside and edge of the rim-disk and wound spirally, at first in wavy horizontal lines around the neck, then tooled into a feather pattern from the shoulder to the point where the body turns inward toward the bottom, where the threads are again wound spirally in horizontal lines to the pad-base.

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, Hudson Hills Press in Association with the Toledo Museum of Art, New York, 1989, cat. no. 180, pp. 173-174, repr. (col.) p. 108, drawing, p. 408.

Arts, P.L.W., Arts, P.L.W., "A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC - 500 AD," ANTIEK Lochem, 2000, p. 84.