Unguent Bottle (Lentoid Aryballos)

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Unguent Bottle (Lentoid Aryballos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

Datemid-late 4th century BCE

DimensionsH: 3 in. (7.6 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm); Diam: 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.154

Not on View

DescriptionThis lentoid aryballos has a cobalt-blue ground with decoration in opaque yellow (appearing orangish) and opaque white. It features a moderately broad, horizontal rim-disk that slopes slightly outward and has a rounded edge. The cylindrical neck tapers downward and meets a rounded shoulder at an obtuse angle. The flattened, globular body has convex sides and a shallow convex bottom. Two rolled cobalt-blue feet, streaked with opaque white, are applied on either side of the bottom. Two vertical cobalt-blue strap handles extend from the shoulder to just below the rim-disk. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is wound twice around the neck in a spiral. A second opaque yellow thread, marvered, begins on the shoulder and is tooled into a feather pattern arranged in eight vertical panels that extend to the bottom of the body. A marvered opaque white thread alternates with the yellow in these bands. The vessel is core-formed, with applied rim-disk, handles, and tooled feet, and decorated with applied marvered and unmarvered 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, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 153, p. 164, repr. (col.) p. 105.

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