Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Syro-Palestinian region
Date2nd through mid- 1st century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 15/16 in. (12.5 cm); Rim Diam: 15/16 in. (2.4 cm); Diam: 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.186
Not on View
DescriptionThis amphoriskos has a medium blue ground decorated with opaque white threads. The moderately broad rim-disk is uneven and slopes inward; the neck is tall, narrow, and cylindrical; the shoulder slopes diagonally; the body is broad and ovoid, tapering to a convex, pointed bottom. A circular pad-base of medium blue glass, flat on its underside and with a rounded edge, supports the vessel. Vestiges remain of two vertical S-shaped handles of uncertain color, positioned at the shoulder and the upper neck.
A marvered opaque white thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk and wound in irregular horizontal lines around the upper neck. This thread continues in a carelessly formed festoon pattern over the rest of the neck and proceeds in horizontal lines over the shoulder. Below the shoulder, it is tooled into a feather pattern that extends to the lower body, ending in horizontal lines just above the pad-base.
Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the amphoriskos features applied rim-disk, handles, pad-base, and applied marvered threads.
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. 179, p. 173, repr. (col.) p. 108, drawing, p. 408.Comparative ReferencesSee also von Saldern, Axel, et al., Gläser Der Antike, Sammlung Oppenländer, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1974, fig. 206, p. 76.2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
3rd century BCE
about 2nd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Late 4th-early 3rd BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
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