Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy
Date4th-3rd century BCE
DimensionsH: 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm); Diam: 1 5/16 in. (4.1 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.90
Not on View
DescriptionAlabastron. Blue ground with opaque yellow and possibly opaque white decoration (obscured by weathering). Broad horizontal rim-disk sloping slightly inward; tall cylindrical neck with upward taper; distinct round-angled shoulder; cylindrical body with almost straight sides that bulge slightly outward at the middle; shallow convex bottom. Below the shoulder, two small blue lugs, each with a depression on its upper surface. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow thread (and possibly one in opaque white), marvered, begun immediately below the shoulder and wound spirally, at first in an irregular festoon pattern, then tooled into a feather pattern to the basal angle, where there are additional rows of carelessly formed opaque yellow (or yellow and white) festoons and wavy horizontal lines. The pattern is organized in several vertical panels, some of which end in poorly defined loops. Core-formed; applied rim-disk and lugs; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.
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. 134, p. 157.
4th-early 3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
Mid-fourth through early third centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
mid 4th-early 3rd centuries BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
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