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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece
DateLate sixth through fifth centuries BCE
DimensionsH: 3 13/16 in. (9.7 cm): Diam: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm): Max Diam of Body: 1 5/16 in. (3.4 cm)
MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads. Vertical indentations on the body caused by the tooling of the zigzags.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.336
Not on View
DescriptionThis core-formed glass alabastron features a blue ground with opaque yellow and turquoise-blue decorative threads. The vessel has a broad, uneven rim-disk with a jagged lip, a vestigial cylindrical neck, a rounded shoulder, and a straight-sided, tapering body ending in a shallow convex base. Two vertical blue ring handles with knobbed tails are attached below the shoulder. Decoration includes an unmarvered turquoise-blue thread at the rim, followed by a marvered yellow thread spirally wound around the upper body. This yellow thread transitions into a shallow zigzag pattern midway down, where it mingles with an added turquoise-blue thread. A second yellow thread, partially marvered, is wound twice horizontally near the base. The vertical indentations on the body are the result of tooling used to shape the zigzag pattern.
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. 71, p. 135, repr.

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