Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece

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 with a cobalt-blue ground and opaque white decoration. The vessel has an outsplayed rim-disk sloping obliquely inward with a rounded edge, leading into a funnel-shaped neck that is cylindrical within. A pronounced, sharply angled shoulder sits above an elongated, upward-tapering oval body with convex sides. The convex bottom has been restored and is likely accurate. Two short, narrow cobalt-blue vertical ring handles with knobbed tails are affixed to the upper body. Decorative elements include a narrow marvered opaque white thread—now mostly lost—wound spirally in horizontal lines from the shoulder to the top of the handle zone. Within the handle zone are two horizontal bands, each formed from two marvered opaque white threads. At mid-body, a narrow marvered opaque white thread is tooled into a shallow, carefully formed zigzag pattern. Below this, one marvered opaque white thread is wound horizontally twice, and another marvered opaque white thread, begun near the base, is 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.