Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

DateMid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE

DimensionsH: 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm); Rim Diam: 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm); Diam: 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.157

Not on View

DescriptionTall alabastron. Cobalt-blue ground with opaque white, opaque yellow, and opaque medium blue decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk, sloping slightly to the outside; cylindrical neck, tapering upward; round-angled shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body with slight upward taper; convex bottom. Below the shoulder, two cobalt-blue vertical ring handles, unpierced, with straight vertical tails. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread (appearing orangish) attached at the edge of the rim-disk; below this, alternating bands of opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque medium blue threads, all marvered, tooled from the shoulder to the basal angle into a close-set feather pattern arranged in nine vertical panels, each ending just above the bottom in a well-defined loop. Core-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.

Published ReferencesHayes, 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. 125, p. 153-154, repr. (col.) p. 101.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 22, repr. (col.) fig. 3F, p. 23.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Unseen Art of TMA: What's in the Vaults and Why?, Sept. 12, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005 (no catalog or checklist).