Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

Date4th-3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 5 5/16 in. (13.5 cm); Diam: 1 9/16 in. (4 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 7/16 in. (3.6 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.96

Not on View

DescriptionThis unguent bottle (alabastron) has a dark blue ground with white speckles and is decorated with opaque white and opaque yellow marvered threads. The vessel has a distinct, almost right-angled shoulder and a nearly straight-sided cylindrical body that tapers slightly inward near the basal angle, ending in a shallow convex bottom. Two cobalt-blue lugs are attached on the upper body, each with a slight depression on its upper surface. An opaque white thread, marvered, begins on the shoulder and is wound in a horizontal line before being tooled into a loosely executed zigzag pattern that extends to the basal angle. There, the thread resumes in a horizontal line around the bottom. A marvered opaque yellow thread begins below the shoulder and intertwines with the white thread down to the base. The vessel is core-formed, with applied lugs and marvered and unmarvered thread decoration. Long vertical indentations on the body result from the tooling of the zigzag pattern.

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. 135, p. 157.