Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece
Date5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 5 in. (12.7 cm); Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 in. (2.6 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.173
Not on View
DescriptionThis alabastron has a dark ground, possibly dark green appearing black, decorated with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue threads. It features a broad, horizontally oriented rim-disk that slopes obliquely outward, a cylindrical neck, a pronounced rounded shoulder, and a straight-sided cylindrical body terminating in a shallow convex bottom. Two long vertical ring handles with knobbed tails are affixed at the shoulder.
An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is applied at the edge of the rim-disk. Two additional threads—opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue—are marvered, applied beginning at the neck and wound spirally in horizontal lines, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern extending from below the handle zone to the base.
Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the vessel also includes applied rim-disk, handles, and 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. 83, p. 139.
Hayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, pp. 9-10.
5th century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Late 6th through 5th centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
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