Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Translucent very dark green (?), appearing opaque black, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque turquoise blue.
Broad horizontal rim-disk, with thick rounded edge; tall cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; rounded uneven shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; uneven convex bottom with tooling marks and smoothed in applied blob of same color glass; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles, one slightly higher than the other, applied over trail pattern.
A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; on body, bands of fine trails in yellow, white and turquoise blue, tooled from shoulder to lower body into an irregular zigzag pattern with alternating upward and downward strokes forming vertical ribs, with yellow, thicker trail continuing in a spiral around bottom.
Complete but broken and repaired around center of body; many pinprick bubbles; some dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.
In the late fourth century B.C., perfume containers often are far larger than their predecessors and have strikingly elegant decoration in the form of delicate colored threads combed into a zigzag, feather, or festoon pattern.
Broad horizontal rim-disk, with thick rounded edge; tall cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; rounded uneven shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; uneven convex bottom with tooling marks and smoothed in applied blob of same color glass; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles, one slightly higher than the other, applied over trail pattern.
A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; on body, bands of fine trails in yellow, white and turquoise blue, tooled from shoulder to lower body into an irregular zigzag pattern with alternating upward and downward strokes forming vertical ribs, with yellow, thicker trail continuing in a spiral around bottom.
Complete but broken and repaired around center of body; many pinprick bubbles; some dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.
In the late fourth century B.C., perfume containers often are far larger than their predecessors and have strikingly elegant decoration in the form of delicate colored threads combed into a zigzag, feather, or festoon pattern.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
- Period: Hellenistic
- Date: late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
- Culture: Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
- Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
- Dimensions: H.: 7 in. (17.8 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.194.745
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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Etruscan
early 5th century BCE
Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
4th–3rd century BCE
Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
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