Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean or Italian

Date3rd century BCE

DimensionsH: 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm); Rim Diam: 15/16 in. (2.4 cm); Diam: 1 7/16 in. (3.7 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.111

Not on View

DescriptionSmall amphoriskos. Dark blue ground (appearing black) with opaque yellow decoration. Narrow horizontal rim-disk with a rounded edge; tall cylindrical neck with slight upward taper; ovoid body; convex pointed bottom; fairly long, dark blue twisted base-knob with an uneven, almost pointed end. Two vertical blue strap handles extend from the shoulder to just below the rim-disk. A marvered opaque yellow thread attached at the edge of the rim-disk and wound spirally in two horizontal lines around the neck, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern below the shoulder and continuing in almost horizontal lines to the lower part of the body. Core-formed; applied rim-disk, handles, and base-knob; applied marvered threads. Short, pronounced vertical indentations on the shoulder caused by the tooling of the zigzags.

Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 14.

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. 145, p. 160-161.

Comparative ReferencesSee also von Saldern, Axel, et al., Gläser Der Antike, Sammlung Oppenländer, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1974, fig. 208, p. 77.