Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes

DateLate sixth through fifth centuries BCE

DimensionsH: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm); Diam: 1 7/16 in. (3.6 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)

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

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.337

Not on View

DescriptionThis core-formed glass alabastron features a blue ground with opaque yellow and turquoise-blue decorative threads. The broad, uneven rim-disk has a short cylindrical neck. The vessel's asymmetrical profile includes one sharply angled shoulder and one gently curving shoulder, tapering slightly upward into a convex base. Two vertical blue ring handles with knobbed tails are attached below the shoulder, slightly askew. Decorative elements include an unmarvered yellow thread at the rim’s edge, followed by a marvered yellow thread that spirals down the neck and body. Initially wound in near-horizontal lines, it transitions into a tooled zigzag pattern at mid-body, where it mingles with an added turquoise-blue thread. A third yellow thread, also marvered, is wound twice horizontally around the lower body.

Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 9.

Grose, 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. 69, p. 134-135, repr.