Unguent Bottle (Oinochoe)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

DateMid-4th through early 3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 4 7/8 in. (12.5 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); Diam: 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm); Base Diam: 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.91

Not on View

DescriptionThis small unguent bottle (oinochoe) has a cobalt-blue ground with decoration in opaque white and opaque yellow (appearing orangish). It features a broad trefoil rim-disk, a tall cylindrical neck, an obtuse-angled shoulder, and a fairly straight-sided piriform body. The vessel is completed by a circular cobalt-blue pad-base that is nearly flat underneath with a rounded edge. Only vestiges remain of a cobalt-blue strap handle, which once extended from below the shoulder to just beneath the rim-disk and likely arched above it. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A second unmarvered yellow thread is spirally wound in horizontal lines around the upper neck. A wide opaque white thread, marvered, begins on the neck and continues in three horizontal spirals across the neck and shoulder, transitioning into a shallow, uneven zigzag pattern around the middle of the body and ending in several horizontal spirals on the lower body. A third thread, opaque yellow and marvered, starts on the shoulder and follows a similar path—first horizontal, then zigzag—mingling in bands with the white thread. An additional unmarvered opaque yellow thread is spirally wound twice around the edge of the pad-base. The vessel is core-formed with applied rim-disk, handle, and pad-base, as well as applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Vertical indentations on the body were caused by the tooling of the zigzags.

Published ReferencesSambon, A., "Les verres antiques," Le Musee 3, 1906, pp. 486-187, pl. 70.10.

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. 151, p. 163, repr. (col.) p. 104.