High-Relief Cameo Glass Fragment with Grapevines

Place of OriginItaly, likely Rome or Bay of Naples

Dateabout 15 BCE - 25 CE (Roman, Augustan)

DimensionsL: 2 1/2 in. (6.2 cm); W: 1 3/8 in. (3.3 cm)

MediumCameo glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1599

Not on View

DescriptionThis curved fragment (6.2 × 3.3 cm) from a cameo glass vessel preserves botanical decoration in white over translucent cobalt blue. The design includes knotted fillets, grape leaves, acanthus foliage, and grape or berry clusters, rendered in high undercut relief. The relief is strongly undercut—possibly to 0.4 cm—but coarsely executed. Lines forming the leaves and knots are sharply incised, almost like being drawn in a single stroke, and lack plasticity. One leaf shows blue rising nearly to the surface, likely due to uneven white glass distribution. The background was irregularly cut, with random polishing marks and no evident surface smoothing. The object has been weathered and iridesced overall.

Label TextThis fragment of a Roman cameo glass vessel preserves part of a grapevine motif in white glass over a cobalt blue background. Knotted fillets and deeply undercut leaves wrap around the curved surface, alongside grape clusters and acanthus motifs. The fragment's technique is bold and graphic, with sharply incised outlines. Similar decorative styles appear on celebrated cameo vessels from Pompeii, such as the Auldjo Jug (now in the British Museum) and the Blue Vase (now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli). Acquired by Edward Drummond Libbey in 1919 from the family of Thomas Hulse Curtis. The Curtis collection was largely acquired in the 1890s from Charles Caryl Coleman, an American artist who resided first in Rome and later on the island of Capri. This collection history strongly suggests a findspot in or around Rome or the Bay of Naples.Published ReferencesRoberts, Paul, William Gudenrath, Veronica Tatton-Brown, and David Whitehouse, Roman Cameo Glass in the British Museum, London, British Museum Press, 2010, p. 47.

Comparative Referencescf. Froehner, Wilhelm, Collection Julien Gréau: Verrerie antique, émaillerie et poterie appartenant à M. John Pierpont Morgan, Paris, 1903, vol. 1, no. 573, p. 83, pl. 59.8.