Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly Syro-Palestinian region

Date2nd through mid-1st century BCE

DimensionsH: 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm); Rim Diam: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); Diam: 2 13/16 in. (7.1 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.137

Not on View

DescriptionThis amphoriskos features a blue ground with opaque white and likely opaque yellow decoration. The vessel has a moderately broad rim-disk that is lopsided and slopes inward, a tall cylindrical neck that bulges outward at the middle, an obtuse-angled shoulder, an elongated ovoid body, and a nearly pointed bottom. Its uneven base-knob is golden-yellow with a flat end. Two vertical strap handles of the same golden-yellow hue extend from the shoulder to the middle of the neck, rising just below the rim-disk. A thick unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the rim and wound spirally—first in horizontal lines around the neck and shoulder, then tooled into a loosely formed feather pattern extending to the lower body, and finally in horizontal lines above the base-knob. An opaque white thread, marvered, is added to the neck and intermingles with the yellow thread along the body. The vessel is core-formed, with applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob, as well as applied marvered and partly marvered threads.

Published ReferencesLuckner, Kurt, "Greek Gold Jewelry," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, 17, 1974, pp. 4-5, fig. 2.

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. 169, p. 169-170.