Double Tube with Looped Trails and Basket Handle

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Double Tube with Looped Trails and Basket Handle

Place of OriginRoman Empire, Palestine

Date6th to early 7th century

DimensionsH: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)

MediumTranslucent green glass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1302

Not on View

DescriptionThis free-blown and tooled glass vessel, classified as a Double Tube VIIIG2a, consists of two flattened tubular compartments that narrow just above the waist and run straight until they curve inward above a narrow base. The hollow rim is folded inward and downward. The glass is transparent light olive (near 10 Y 5/4) with similarly colored translucent handles, looped trails, and thread. The vessel is made of medium thin glass with vertically elongated bubbles in the body and black specks in the handles. The pontil mark is approximately 1.8 cm in diameter. The fabric cannot be determined due to weathering. The body is pinched once lengthwise. Four looped trails are applied to the outside corners of the body, angled relative to the dividing wall, and attached above the base. Each trail is touched down to the body five or six times and pushed upward to form six or seven curling loops before attaching to the rim. A three-dimensional, triple-tiered curving basket handle, made from five separate coils with U-shaped or flattened sections, connects the looped trails. The first tier consists of two parallel cross-elements, one applied to the top of the looped trail at the right front corner and attached to the left front corner, the other connecting the rear left and rear right corners. The second tier consists of two similar cross-elements that arch across the left and right sides and are attached to the upper edges of the lower elements. The third tier is a single coil that spans the top of the second tier and is topped by a coil forming a small knob. Excess glass at the tops of the trails and handles is drawn back against them. From the lower body to the upper body, at least ten revolutions of thin thread decoration are applied upward from right to left, beginning beneath the rear right trail. The thread decoration was applied before the body was pinched.

Published ReferencesGunther, Charles F., "How Glass is Made," Toledo Museum News, New Series: vol. 15, no. 1, 1972, repr. p. 15.

Harden, Donald B., "Ancient Glass, III: Post Roman," The Archaeological Journal, vol. 128, 1972, p. 81, 113, repr. pl. Vd.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "The Complexities of Ancient Glass," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, repr. (b&w) fig. 8, p. 431.

Lakafsky, Charles, Pottery, Dubuque, 1968, repr. fig. 2, p. 2.

Labino, Dominick, Visual Art in Glass, Dubuque, 1968, repr. (b&w) fig. 13, p. 25.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, OH, 1969, repr. p. 30.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Smith, Ray Winfield, Glass from the Ancient World, The Corning Museum of Glass, 1957, section III, p. 163, no. 338 and 339 (plus figures). Cf. Matheson, Susan, Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1980, p. 123.