Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
DateLate sixth through fifth centuries BCE
DimensionsH: 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm); Diam: 1 in. (2.6 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 13/16 in. (4.6 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.184
Not on View
DescriptionAmphoriskos. Blue ground with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. Broad, inward-sloping rim-disk; rather tall cylindrical neck; almost right-angled shoulder; top-shaped body; circular blue base-knob, flat on its underside, with a rounded edge. Two blue vertical strap handles extend from the shoulder to above the middle of the neck. An unmarvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow thread, marvered, begun on the shoulder and wound spirally in horizontal lines over the shoulder and upper part of the body; below this, two wide opaque turquoise-blue threads, with one or more narrow opaque yellow threads, all marvered, tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around the middle of the body; below this, an opaque yellow and an opaque turquoise-blue thread, both marvered, each wound horizontally once around the body; another opaque yellow thread, marvered, is wound around the edge and underside of the base-knob. Core-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob; applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Vertical indentations on the body caused by the tooling of the zigzags.
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. 98, p. 144.Exhibition HistoryJohn Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, Ind., Glass Throughout History, exhibition, no. ex. cat., October-December, 1953
4th-3rd century BCE
Probably first half of fifth century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
late 6th-5th centuries BCE
6th-5th century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
Late 4th-early 3rd BCE
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