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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

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Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italy
DateMid-4th through early third centuries BCE
DimensionsH: 7 3/16 in. (18.2 cm); Diam: 1 15/16 in. (5 cm); Max Diam of Body: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm)
MediumCore-formed: applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.338
Not on View
DescriptionTall alabastron. Natural light green ground with a bluish tinge, with opaque white and opaque yellow (?) decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk with rounded edge; cylindrical neck, tapering downward; distinct right-angled shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body with slight upward taper; convex bottom. Below the shoulder, two vertical pale green ring handles, both unpierced. An unmarvered opaque yellow (possibly opaque white) thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk; a second opaque yellow (?) thread and an opaque white thread, both marvered, begun on the shoulder and wound twice around it in wavy, almost horizontal lines, then tooled into a widely spaced feather pattern arranged in eight vertical panels, extending from the shoulder to the basal angle and ending in irregularly shaped loops.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 13

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. 123, p. 152-153, repr. (col.) p. 101.

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