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

DescriptionAmphoriskos. Blue ground with opaque white and probably opaque yellow decoration. Moderately broad rim-disk, lopsided and sloping inward; tall cylindrical neck, bulging outward at the middle; obtuse-angled shoulder; elongated ovoid body; almost pointed bottom; uneven, golden-yellow base-knob with a flat end. Two vertical golden-yellow strap handles extend from the shoulder to the middle of the neck, rising to just below the rim-disk. A thick unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk and wound spirally at first in horizontal lines around the neck and shoulder, then tooled into a carelessly formed feather pattern from below the shoulder to the lower body, and finally in horizontal lines to above the base-knob; an opaque white thread, marvered, is added on the neck and mingles on the body with the yellow thread. Core-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob; 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.