Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
DateLate sixth through fifth centuries BCE
DimensionsRestored H: 5 15/16 in. (15.1 cm); Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm)
MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered threads.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.331
Not on View
DescriptionAlabastron. Cobalt-blue ground with opaque white decoration. Outsplayed rim-disk, sloping obliquely inward, with a rounded edge; funnel-shaped neck, cylindrical within; pronounced, sharply angled shoulder; elongated oval body with upward taper and convex sides. The restored convex bottom is probably correct. On the upper body, two short, narrow cobalt-blue vertical ring handles with knobbed tails. A narrow marvered opaque white thread, now mostly lost, begun on the shoulder and wound spirally in horizontal lines to the top of the handle zone; below this, in the handle zone, two horizontal bands, each of two marvered opaque white threads; at the middle of the body, a narrow marvered opaque white thread tooled into a shallow, carefully formed, close-set zigzag pattern; below this, a single opaque white thread, marvered, wound horizontally twice around the body, and another opaque white thread, marvered, begun near the bottom and wound horizontally several times.
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. 92, p. 142.Late 6th - 5th century BCE
Mid-4th to early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
3rd through 2nd century BCE
3rd century BCE
3rd century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
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