Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean
Date3rd through 2nd century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 7/16 in. (11.2 cm); Rim Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); Diam: 1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm)
MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered threads. Faint vertical indentations on the body caused by the tooling of the zigzags.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.344
Not on View
DescriptionThis core-formed alabastron has a cobalt-blue ground decorated with opaque yellow (appearing orangish) and opaque white threads. The moderately broad rim-disk is slightly lopsided with a rounded edge. A tall cylindrical neck tapers upward into a rounded shoulder. The cylindrical body tapers inward near the base, which is convex. Below the shoulder are two horizontal cobalt-blue coiled knob handles with upward-facing depressions.
A marvered yellow thread begins on the upper surface of the rim-disk and spirals over and under the disk and around the neck. A marvered white thread is added at the neck, mingling with the yellow. Together they descend to the handle level, where they are tooled into an irregular, close-set zigzag pattern. Below this, the threads form horizontal lines around the lower body and base. Faint vertical indentations on the body reflect the tooling of the zigzag design.
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. 162, p. 167.
3rd century BCE
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
late 6th through 5th century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
18th Dynasty (1550-1292 BCE), about 1412-1350 BCE
5th century BCE
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
Mid-4th to early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
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