Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, Possibly Syria or Palestine
Date2nd through mid-1st century BCE
DimensionsH: 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm); Rim Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Diam: 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm)
MediumCore-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and pad-base; applied marvered threads.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.347
Not on View
DescriptionThis core-formed amphoriskos has a light blue ground with opaque white and yellow marvered decoration. The moderately broad rim-disk is uneven and slopes inward. A short cylindrical neck leads to a vestigial shoulder and a fusiform body with straight sides. The base consists of a colorless circular pad, flat but uneven underneath, with a rounded edge.
Two vertical S-shaped handles made from colorless glass with a yellowish tint connect the upper body to the underside of the rim-disk, attaching at the lower neck. Opaque white and yellow threads, both marvered, begin on the upper and outer rim-disk and are wound in spirals: first in horizontal lines around the neck, then tooled into a feather pattern over most of the body, and finally wrapped in a few horizontal lines above the base.
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. 181, p. 174.
Arts, P.L.W., "A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC - 500 AD," ANTIEK Lochem, 2000, p. 84.
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Mid-4th to early 3rd century BCE
3rd century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
3rd century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
3rd through 2nd century BCE
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