Unguent Bottle (Unguentarium)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy

Date3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 3 9/16 in. (9 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.5 cm); Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Base Diam: 1 in. (2.6 cm)

MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and foot; applied marvered threads.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.333

Not on View

DescriptionSmall unguentarium with a cobalt-blue ground and opaque white and opaque yellow decoration (yellow appearing orangish). It has a thick, moderately broad rim-disk that slopes gently outward with a rounded edge, a tall cylindrical neck tapering downward, a shoulder meeting the neck at an obtuse angle, and an ovoid body ending in a pointed base. A tall, flaring cobalt-blue foot is nearly flat underneath. Two upright circular cobalt-blue disk handles are affixed below the shoulder. A white and a yellow marvered thread, both beginning at the rim’s edge and underside, spiral downward across the neck. The white thread extends over the shoulder and is tooled into a zigzag band at the body’s midpoint, where another yellow thread is added, interlacing with the white. Both threads are then wound in horizontal lines around the midsection.

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. 159, p. 166, repr. (col.) p. 106.