Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

Date4th-early 3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 5 11/16 in. (14.5 cm); Diam: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.131

Not on View

DescriptionThis core-formed alabastron has a blue ground with opaque white and opaque yellow decoration. The vessel features a thin, broad horizontal rim-disk that slopes slightly outward, a rather tall cylindrical neck, an obtuse-angled shoulder, and an almost straight-sided cylindrical body that tapers inward near the base. The bottom is shallow and convex. Two small blue lugs are set below the shoulder at uneven heights; each has a depression on its upper surface. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A marvered opaque white thread begins diagonally on the neck and continues in a spiral down the vessel, where it is tooled into four rows of upright festoons followed by a close-set zigzag pattern. This is complemented by a marvered opaque yellow thread, begun just above the lugs, which intermingles with the white thread in alternating bands extending to the lower body. Tooling marks create long vertical indentations on the body.

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. 133, p. 156-157, Repr. (col.) p. 102.