Double Head-shaped Flask (Sprinkler): Two Similar Smiling Faces

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Double Head-shaped Flask (Sprinkler): Two Similar Smiling Faces

Place of OriginPerhaps United States

Date19th century

DimensionsH: 3 7/8 in. (9.9 cm); H (Body): 2 13/16 in. (7.1 cm); Max Diam: 2 5/16 in. (5.9 cm); Rim Diam: 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm); Base Diam (nose to nose): 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)

MediumRim and neck free blown. Body blown into a two-part mold of two verical sections, each including part of the base.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.528

Not on View

DescriptionTransparent natural pale green (10 G 6/2). Medium thin glass. Blowing spirals. Numerous medium and small bubbles, vertically elongated in neck, spherical in body. Black specks in neck and rim. One continuous mold seam concealed in hair at junction of heads, extends across underside of base. U-shaped lock in mold seam in center of underside of base. Relief crisp. No pontil mark. Horizontal hollow rim, folded outward, upward, inward, and flattened. Short tubular neck, with constriction at its base where an interior cut-out forms a diaphragm with an aperture of 0.8 cm. Body in the shape of a double head. Oval flat base. Body in the shape of two heads back to back with similar features: large eyes with recessed pupils, short upturned nose, knob-shaped cheeks, lips slightly parted in a smile, and pronounced dimples in the cheeks and chin. The hair around both faces is parted in the middle above the center of the forehead, with a long thick lock (or wing?) over each half of forehead and distinct evenly spaced knobs framing the face to below chin level. Behind the first tier of knobs the hair is rendered as irregular shallow vertical ridges. On face B each long lock seems to be subdivided into two locks; the dimple in the left cheeck is missing. The dimple in the chin of face A is deeper and more defined.

Published ReferencesStern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: the First through Sixth Centuries, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider in Association with the Toledo Museum of Art, Rome, Italy, 1995, cat. no. 166, pp. 244-245.