Ovoid Bottle with Four Non-Functional Handles

Place of OriginRoman Empire

Date4th-5th century CE

DimensionsH: 11 9/16 in. (29.4 cm); Rim Diam: 1 9/16 in. (4 cm); Body Diam (without decoration): 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm)

MediumGlass; free-blown, tooled, applied decoration.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1063

Not on View

DescriptionThis bottle is made of medium thin glass. The fabric cannot be determined because of weathering. The body is transparent with a natural pale green tint (near 10 G 6/2). The trails and handles are translucent to opaque dark blue. The bottle was free-blown, with a pontil mark approximately 1.8 cm in diameter. A reinforcing button of glass was added to the base before puntying. The trails were added separately, and the excess glass at the tips of the handles was clipped off. The rim is rounded in the flame. The funnel neck has a slight bulge above a constriction at its base, leading into a strongly sloped shoulder. The bulbous, ovoid body has its greatest diameter below the midpoint. The high pushed-in foot is finished with a hollow tubular base ring. Four non-functional coil side handles are applied above the base and trail up along the sides of the body with fourteen irregular crimps before bending outward into decorative loop handles attached to the lower part of the neck above the constriction. Between these handles, four additional crimped trails with loops are applied to the lower body. Each trail is trailed up along the body with three to five irregular crimps, a loop, two more crimps, another loop, and two to three final crimps, ending just above the middle of the body. This vessel is classified as Bulbous Bottle I C 1 b.

Published ReferencesGrose, David, "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 82, repr. fig. 28.