Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy
Date3rd century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 3/4 in. (12.1 cm); Diam: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 3/4 in. (4.5 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.80
Not on View
DescriptionAmphoriskos. Cobalt-blue ground with white speckles, with opaque yellow (appearing orangish) and opaque white decoration. Narrow horizontal rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck; distinct, almost right-angled shoulder; inverted piriform body with convex pointed bottom; long, twisted blue base-knob with an uneven end. Vestiges of two vertical cobalt-blue strap handles that originally extended from the shoulder to just below the rim-disk. A partly marvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk and wound spirally twice around it before being wound spirally around the neck and shoulder, at first in overlapping horizontal lines, then in a single marvered zigzag on the shoulder, and continuing in horizontal lines around the middle and lower body; an opaque white thread, partly marvered, is added on the neck and wound spirally in horizontal lines over the shoulder and around the body, mingling with the yellow thread. Core-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob; applied partly marvered and marvered threads. Short but pronounced vertical indentations on the shoulder caused by the tooling of the zigzags.
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. 143, p. 160
3rd century BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
Mid-4th to early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
late 6th-5th centuries BCE
Probably first half of fifth century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
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