Glass Rhyton with Animal Protome

Place of OriginRome

Date1st to 2nd century CE

DimensionsH: 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm); L: 5 1/2 in. (14 cm)

MediumGlass; blown.

ClassificationGlass

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

Object number

2005.6

Not on View

DescriptionDrinking horn blown of colorless glass with greenish tinge, the tapering bowl partially mold-blown with fluted ribs curving out, the terminal in form of an animal's head with two pulled-out and slightly twisted ears and a long narrow snout which is open at the tip. The short rim is cracked off and has a slight constriction where it meets the body. No pontil mark.

Label TextAt ancient banquets horn-shaped rhyta (from Greek for “flow”) made of clay, ivory, silver, and even gold were popular drinking cups, with the reveler drinking from the spout at the front. A rhyton without a base, like this one, was passed around until empty. Glass was a common material for tableware in the Roman world after the invention of glassblowing around 50 BCE. Clear glass vessels became fashionable around the mid-1st century CE.Published ReferencesYacoub, M., "Les verres romains des Musées de Sfax, de Sousse et du Bardo," Bulletin Association internationale pour l'histoire du verre, no. 6, 1971-72, p. 34, no. V.1. A. v.

"Glasrhyta," in T. E. Haevernick and A. v. Saldern, eds., Festschrift für Waldemar Haberey, Mainz a. Rhein, 1976, pl. 32, no. 2 (from Adria, Italy), pl. 32, no. 3 (in the Cinzano Collection), and pl. 33, no. 3 (in the British Museum); and M. C. Calvi, I vetri romani del Museo di Aquileia, Aquileia 1968, p. 108, no. 259 (from Aquileia, Italy).

Comparative ReferencesSee also D. Whitehouse, Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 1, 1997, p. 120, no.186 (with tooled "horns" and without mold-blown ribs). Cf. Isings, Roman Glass from Dated Finds, Groningen and Djakarta, 1957, form 73a.