Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean
Date2nd through mid-1st century BCE
DimensionsH: 5 3/16 in. (13.1 cm); Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm); Diam: 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.84
Not on View
DescriptionThis core-formed unguent bottle, or alabastron, features a dark blue ground decorated with opaque yellow (appearing orangish or even greenish) and opaque white threads. The rim is a narrow, uneven horizontal disk sloping slightly inward with a rounded edge. The tall cylindrical neck tapers downward slightly and is marked by tooling on the neck and shoulder. A rounded shoulder meets the neck at an almost right angle, giving way to a long, oval body with convex sides that taper inward at the base. The bottom is convex.
Two small lugs are applied unevenly below the shoulder: one is carefully flattened with an outward-facing depression, the other an irregular globular mass. A marvered opaque yellow thread is drawn twice across the rim-disk, descending diagonally in wavy lines to the shoulder, where it joins a marvered opaque white thread. These threads are tooled into a widely spaced feather pattern arranged in ten vertical panels that extend down to the basal angle.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 13.
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. 164, p. 167-168, repr. (col.) p. 107.
4th-3rd century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
mid 4th-early 3rd centuries BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
Mid-fourth through early third centuries BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
mid-late 4th century BCE
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