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
DescriptionThis amphoriskos is core-formed from cobalt-blue glass with white speckling and decorated with opaque yellow and white threads. It features a narrow horizontal rim-disk, a tall cylindrical neck, and a sharply defined shoulder that transitions into an inverted piriform body with a pointed convex bottom. The vessel terminates in a long twisted base-knob with an irregular end.
Two vertical cobalt-blue strap handles originally extended from the shoulder to just below the rim-disk; only vestiges remain. A yellow thread, partly marvered, is applied at the rim edge, spirals around the rim-disk twice, and continues in overlapping lines around the neck and shoulder. It is then tooled into a single zigzag pattern on the shoulder before continuing in horizontal spirals across the mid- and lower body. An opaque white thread, partly marvered, is layered over the yellow on the neck, shoulder, and body. Short vertical indentations on the shoulder result from tooling the zigzag pattern. The vessel was manufactured using core-forming and finishing techniques including the application of marvered and unmarvered threads, and separately applied handles and base-knob.
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 through early 3rd centuries BCE
5th century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Probably first half of fifth century BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
5th through early 4th centuries BCE
3rd century BCE
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