Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
Date5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 5 1/2 in. (14 cm); Diam: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 1/4 in. (3.1 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.188
Not on View
DescriptionThis alabastron is formed on a golden-brown ground and decorated with opaque white threads. It features a broad, uneven horizontal rim-disk and a cylindrical neck, which transitions into a pronounced rounded-angled shoulder. The straight-sided cylindrical body tapers slightly upward and terminates in a convex bottom.
Two long vertical ring handles, made from golden-brown glass, descend from below the shoulder and are attached at different heights on the body. A single unmarvered opaque white thread is attached at the rim-disk’s edge. A second marvered opaque white thread, beginning on the underside of the rim-disk, is wound in close horizontal spirals before being tooled into a carefully formed, close-set zigzag pattern extending from the middle of the body to the bottom, where the thread resumes in a few horizontal lines.
Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the alabastron also features applied rim-disk, handles, and 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. 80, p. 138.
5th century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
5th century BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
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