Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy
Date4th-3rd century BCE
DimensionsH: 3 in. (7.6 cm); Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); Max Diam of Body: 15/16 in. (2.4 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.107
Not on View
DescriptionThis miniature alabastron has a dark green ground, appearing black, streaked with opaque red and decorated with threads in opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque turquoise blue. The vessel features a broad horizontal rim-disk, a short, uneven cylindrical neck that tapers upward, a vestigial shoulder, and a cylindrical body with a slight upward taper ending in a shallow convex bottom. Below the shoulder are two vertical dark green ring handles with short vestigial tails, each with a depression on one side, facing in opposite directions. Alternating bands of marvered opaque yellow, white, and turquoise-blue threads are tooled into a feather pattern arranged in seven vertical panels that end in irregular loops. The vessel is core-formed with applied marvered threads, rim-disk, and handles.
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. 128, p. 154-155.Exhibition HistoryCranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, Ancient Egypt, exhibition, no. ex. cat., November 1960-January 1961.
5th century BCE
Late 6th through 5th centuries BCE
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
6th-5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
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