Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

DateMid-4th through early 3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm); Rim Diam: 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm); Diam: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.178

Not on View

DescriptionTall alabastron. Dark blue ground with white speckles, with opaque white, opaque yellow, and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk, uneven on the upperside and sloping to the outside; cylindrical neck with distinct downward taper; pronounced but uneven, almost right-angled shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body with upward taper; convex bottom. Below the shoulder, two large vertical blue ring handles. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow thread, marvered, begun on the shoulder and wound spirally, at first in a single horizontal line, then tooled into a widely spaced festoon pattern extending to the lower body; an opaque white and an opaque turquoise-blue thread, both marvered and tooled into festoons, mingle with it in alternating bands to the lower body; below this, the same opaque white thread and a third opaque yellow thread, marvered, are wound spirally in horizontal lines around the lowest part of the body; a marvered opaque yellow dot is applied to the center of the bottom. Core-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.

Published ReferencesWittmann, Otto, ed., The Toledo Museum of Art. A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1966, p. 2, ill.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "The Complexities of Ancient Glass," Apollo 86, 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. 13.

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. 124, p. 153, repr. (col.) p. 101.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Auth, Susan H., Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum, 1976, fig. 11 (for shape and size); and fig. 26 (for festoon pattern of trailed threads).