Cylindrical Cup with Mold-blown Inscription

Place of OriginProbably Syro-Palestinian, probably Sidon

DateFirst half of first century

DimensionsH (pres.): 2 7/16 in. (6.15 cm); Rim Diam (rec): 2 5/8 in. (6.6 cm); Base Diam (rec.): 2 3/8 in. (6.0 cm); Max Body Thickness: 1/16 in. (0.22 cm); Max L: 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm); Max W: 1 5/8 in. (4.2 cm)

MediumPolychrome composite mosaic glass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.412A-B

Not on View

DescriptionThis accession includes two glass objects: a cylindrical cup and a base fragment of a footed plate. The cup is made of transparent dusky yellow-green glass (5 GY 5/2) with thin walls and a few small spherical bubbles. It was blown into a two-part vertical mold (MCT VII), with seams running from rim to base through stylized palm leaves; the relief is crisp. The form features an outsplayed, unworked rim and a cylindrical body decorated with three horizontal friezes separated and bordered by single ridges. The central frieze bears a Greek inscription in relief—(ΛΑΒΕ) ΤΗΝ (with reversed N) // ΝΕΙΚΗΝ (labe tēn neikēn), meaning “Seize the victory”—flanked by upper and lower friezes containing six stylized wreaths each, composed of two concentric circles with radial lines and knotted ends below. Two opposed palm leaves divide the inscription symmetrically. Also included is a flat base fragment from a footed plate, with an applied hollow tubular foot. Its polychrome mosaic decoration features green rosettes with white centers, white rings with yellow centers, and green spirals on a purple ground.

Published ReferencesVillefosse 1904, pp. 278-280.

Perdrizet, P., "Verres de Sidon donnes en prix dans des concours," Memories de la Societe nationale des antiquaires de France ser 7, 65 (1904-1905) 291ff., Class 1B, nos. 5-8.

Harden, Donald B., Roman Glass from Karanis, University of Michigan Studies, Humanistic Series 41, Ann Arbor, 1936, p. 178, Group K1iiif and g.

Matheson, Susan B., Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CN, 1980, p. 53, no. 134. (erroneously cited as acc. 1923.411 (Cat no. 2)).

Stern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First Through Sixth Centuries, Rome, Italy, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1995, cat. no. 3, pp. 99-100.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Froehner, W., Collection Julian Greau, Paris, 1903, vol. 2, pl. 80, no. 9.