Mosaic Glass Plate

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Eastern Mediterranean, possibly Italy

Date1st century BCE

DimensionsH: 13/16 in. (2.1 cm); Diam: 5 1/8 in. (13 cm); Max Thickness: 3/16 in. (0.5 cm)

MediumAssembled from sections and segments of cane and cast; applied rim; rotary-polished on the interior, the top, and the outside of the rim; probably rotary-polished on the rest of the exterior, but the surface remains somewhat uneven.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1464

Not on View

DescriptionThis broad, shallow dish features an outsplayed rim and side with a rounded edge, a sharply turned basal angle, and a flat but slightly uneven bottom. Its composite mosaic pattern is formed from polygonal sections and square segments of three distinct canes: the first has a blue ground with an opaque yellow spiral; the second, represented by six sections, has a golden-brown ground with an opaque white spiral; and the third, with three irregular segments, has a turquoise-blue ground backed by opaque white, visible only on the interior. An additional blue network cane wound spirally with an opaque white thread forms the applied rim.

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. 204, p. 202, repr. (col.) 178, ill. p. 410.

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. 3 (col.).