One-Handled Jug with Festoon Decoration

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One-Handled Jug with Festoon Decoration

Place of OriginEgypt; possibly Syro-Cypriot

Dateabout 1350-1300 BCE

DimensionsH: 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm); Rim Diam: 5/8 in. (1.6 cm); Diam: 2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm); Base Diam: 7/8 in. (2.3 cm)

MediumCore-formed; applied handle and pad-base; applied marvered threads.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1977.28

Not on View

DescriptionThis is a core-formed glass one-handled jug, restored to show a tall cylindrical neck and a single vertical strap handle. The body is bulbous with convex sides, tapering to a small, circular, solid pad-base. The ground color is likely dark blue, imitating lapis lazuli, though heavily weathered. The decorative program consists of applied and marvered opaque threads in white, yellow, and turquoise-blue. The neck features a close-set zigzag pattern. A yellow thread winds horizontally around the shoulder, below which the body displays a wide band of threads tooled into a festoon or feather pattern. A final yellow thread encircles the lower body, and another winds around the underside of the base. The surface shows significant pitting, iridescence, and cream-colored weathering. The neck, rim, and handle are modern restorations in synthetic plastic

Label TextThis one-handled jug is an example of high-quality Egyptian core-formed glass production from the New Kingdom. The vessel was constructed by trailing molten glass over a removable core, a technique prevalent before the invention of the blowpipe. The form corresponds to Birgit Nolte's Type VI,e, characterized by a globular body and cylindrical neck. The vessel was part of the collection of Thomas E. H. Curtis (1852–1915) of Plainfield, New Jersey, likely by 1915. A sticker on the base numbered "611" suggests it may have previously passed through a Rudolph Lepke auction in Berlin.Published ReferencesNolte, Birgit, Die Glasgefasse im alten Aegypten, Munchner Aegyptologische Studien, no. 14, Berlin, 1968, pp. 111-112 and 118, no. 36, pl. 19 (incorrectly cited as TMA acc. no. 1923.611).

Harden, Donald B., Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. 1, London, 1981, p. 34.

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. 23, p. 64, repr. (col.) p. 43.