Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
Date6th-5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 11/16 in. (11.9 cm.); Rim Diam: 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm); Diam: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.166
Not on View
DescriptionThis alabastron features an opaque white ground with purple thread decoration. It has a broad horizontal rim-disk that is slightly asymmetrical and uneven on its upper surface, a vestigial cylindrical neck, a rounded shoulder, and a nearly cylindrical body that tapers upward toward a shallow convex bottom with a slightly rough center.
Two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, made of opaque white glass, are applied below the shoulder and set slightly askew. An unmarvered purple thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A second thread, marvered, begins on the neck and is wound spirally in nearly horizontal lines, then tooled into a zigzag pattern that extends to below the middle of the body. A third thread, partly marvered, is wound horizontally twice around the lower body.
Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also includes applied rim-disk and handles, and applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Tooling marks are visible on the upper and lower surfaces of the rim-disk. Vertical indentations on the body result from the tooling of the zigzag pattern.
Published ReferencesLabino, Dominick, Visual Art in Glass, Dubuque, Iowa, 1968, pp. 14-15, fig. 3.
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. 66, pp. 133-134, Repr. (col.) p. 96.
Exhibition HistoryJohn Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, IN, Glass Throughout History, exhibition, no ex. cat., October-December, 1953.
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late 6th through 5th centuries BCE
5th through early 4th centuries BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
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