Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
Date5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 11/16 in. (11.9 cm); Diam: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 in. (2.6 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.167
Not on View
DescriptionThis alabastron is made of a dark ground glass—possibly dark green, appearing black—with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. The vessel has a broad horizontal rim-disk, a short cylindrical neck, a rounded shoulder, a straight-sided cylindrical body, and a nearly flat bottom.
Two long dark ring handles with knobbed tails are applied just below the shoulder, positioned at different heights. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is attached at the edge of the rim-disk. A second opaque yellow thread and a turquoise-blue thread, both marvered, are begun on the neck and wound spirally: initially in nearly horizontal lines, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern that extends from the middle of the handle zone to the lower body, where the threads resume a horizontal arrangement down to the center of the bottom.
Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also features applied rim-disk and handles, along with 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. 84, p. 139-140.
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Probably first half of 5th century BCE
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