Lentoid Aryballos (Bottle)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

Dateabout 350-300 BCE

Dimensions5 1/4 x 4 x 1 5.8 x 2 7/8 in. (13.3 x 10.2 cm x 4.2 x 7.3 cm)

Mediumcore-formed glass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1985.66

Not on View

DescriptionLarge lentoid aryballos. Golden-brown ground with opaque yellow (appearing orangish) and opaque white (in places appearing opaque light blue) decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk, sloping inward; cylindrical neck with upward taper; obtuse-angled junction with rounded shoulder; flattened globular body with convex sides, uneven in places; shallow convex bottom; two rolled, cylindrical golden-brown feet, flat on their undersides, on either side of the bottom; two identical golden-brown cylindrical rolls attached horizontally on either side of the shoulder and joined to the feet by thick, golden-brown coils, each wound with a single spiraling opaque white thread. Two large golden-brown ring handles attached to the shoulder above the upper rolls. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second unmarvered opaque yellow thread wound horizontally around the neck; a third opaque yellow thread, marvered, begun on the shoulder and wound spirally, at first in a single horizontal line, then tooled into a feather pattern arranged in twelve vertical panels extending to the basal angle; a marvered opaque white thread mingles with the yellow thread in alternating bands, both ending in poorly defined loops. Opaque white circular plugs, each with a small central indentation, are inserted in the ends of the four rolled cylinders. Core formed; applied rim-disk and ring handles; applied vertical coils on opposite sides of the body, with cylindrical rolls attached at the upper and lower ends of the coils. Tooling marks and creases on the upper- and undersides of rim-disk.

Published References"Recent Important Acquisitions," Journal of Glass Studies 29, 1987, p. 113.

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. 154, p. 164-165, Repr. (col.) p. 105.

Luckner, Kurt T. and Sandra E. Knudsen, "Early ancient glass in the Toledo Museum of Art," Minerva, vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 1990, p. 33, fig. 2 (col.).

Battie, David and Simon Cottle, eds. Sotheby's concise encyclopedia of glass, London, 1991, repr. p. 20 (col.).

Saldern, Axel von, Antikes Glas, Munchen, C.H. Beck, 2004, p. 77, pl. 12/70.

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

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 65, repr. (col.).

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