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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
DateLate sixth through fifth centuries BCE
DimensionsH: 3 15/16 in. (10 cm); Diam: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 in. (2.6 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.127
Not on View
DescriptionAlabastron. Dark blue ground with opaque yellow (appearing orangish) and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk, uneven on its upper- and undersides; short cylindrical neck; round-angled shoulder; uneven cylindrical body; almost pointed convex bottom, flat on one side. Below the shoulder, two dark blue vertical ring handles with knobbed tails. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow thread, marvered, begun on the neck and wound spirally, at first in almost horizontal lines, then tooled into a few zigzags to the middle of the body, where a wide opaque turquoise-blue thread is added, mingling with it; below this, a third opaque yellow thread, unmarvered, is wound horizontally three times around the body.Core-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; 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. 72, pp. 135-136, Repr.

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