Unguent Bottle (Oinochoe)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

DateMid-4th through early 3rd centuries 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

DescriptionOinochoe. Cobalt-blue ground with opaque white and opaque yellow (appearing orangish) decoration. Broad trefoil rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck; obtuse-angled shoulder; fairly straight-sided, piriform body; circular cobalt-blue pad-base, almost flat on its underside, with a rounded edge. Vestiges of a cobalt-blue strap handle extending from below the shoulder to just below the rim-disk; the handle probably rose to just above the rim-disk. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second unmarvered opaque yellow thread wound spirally in horizontal lines around the upper part of the neck; a wide opaque white thread, marvered, begun on the neck and wound spirally, at first in three horizontal lines around the neck and across the shoulder, then tooled into a shallow, uneven wavy or zigzag pattern around the middle of the body, before ending in several rows of almost horizontal lines around the lower body; a third opaque yellow thread, marvered, also begun on the shoulder and wound spirally, at first in horizontal lines, then in shallow zigzags, mingling in bands with the white thread; an unmarvered opaque yellow thread is wound twice around the edge of the pad-base. Core-formed; applied rim-disk, handle, and pad-base; applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Vertical indentations on the body 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.