Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of Originpossibly Rhodes, found in Al Fayyūm, Egypt
Datelate 6th-5th centuries BCE
Dimensions2 1/2 × 7/8 × 3 7/8 in. (6.3 × 2.3 × 9.9 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number
1916.52
Not on View
DescriptionCore-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob; applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Short vertical indentations on the body caused by the tooling of the zigzags.
Small amphoriskos. Cobalt-blue ground with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad, inward-sloping rim-disk; cylindrical neck, tapering upward; obtuse-angled shoulder; top-shaped body; circular cobalt-blue base-knob with a rounded edge and a small hole on its underside at the center. Two cobalt-blue vertical strap handles extend from the shoulder to the top of the neck. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow thread, marvered, begun on the shoulder and wound spirally, at first in a few wavy horizontal lines, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern to the junction of the shoulder and body, where an opaque turquoise-blue thread, also marvered, is added, mingling with the yellow thread; below this, a third opaque yellow and a second opaque turquoise-blue thread, both marvered, are wound horizontally around the body; a fourth marvered opaque yellow thread is wound around the edge and underside of the base-knob.
Published References"Early Egyptian Glass," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 29, 1917, p. 352.
Grose, 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. 103, p. 145-146.
4th-3rd century BCE
Probably first half of fifth century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
6th-5th century BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late 4th-early 3rd BCE
Membership
Become a TMA member today
Support TMA
Help support the TMA mission