Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, Possibly Syria or Palestine

Date2nd through mid-1st century BCE

DimensionsH: 4 15/16 in. (12.5 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.6 cm); Diam: 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm)

MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk and lugs; applied marvered threads.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.350

Not on View

DescriptionThis core-formed alabastron features a blue body streaked with opaque red and decorated with opaque white marvered threads. The moderately broad horizontal rim-disk is uneven and inward-sloping. The cylindrical neck leads into a vestigial shoulder and a straight-sided fusiform body, ending in a convex pointed base. Two blue lugs with shallow depressions are attached below the shoulder—one angled outward, the other upward. A white marvered thread begins at the edge of the rim-disk, at times overlapping its upper surface. It spirals downward in near-horizontal lines around the neck and shoulder. From there, it transitions into a festoon pattern, followed by a close-set feather design in eight vertical panels extending toward the base. Near the bottom, the thread resumes a spiral pattern wound in horizontal lines to the center of the base.

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. 166, p. 168, repr. (col.) p. 107.

Arts, P.L.W., "A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC - 500 AD," ANTIEK Lochem, 2000, p. 85.