Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque turquoise blue.
Broad slightly uneven rim-disk, with a few radiating tooling marks on upper surface; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; narrow shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; convex bottom; on upper body, two small vertical ring handles, unpierced, with short pointed trails, applied over trail pattern; on one side, irregular projections at top and bottom of bottom.
A yellow trail attached at lower edge of rim-disk; on body, alternating bands of yellow, white, and opaque turquoise blue, tooled from top of body to undercurve at bottom into a regular feather pattern in six vertical panels with alternating upward and downward strokes.
Broken and repaired around middle of body, with one small hole and several chips, and another oval hole at bottom of body below projection; large white inclusion in rim-disk; slight dulling and pitting, and faint iridescent weathering.
Among the more striking examples of glass perfume vessels of the fourth century B.C. are tall, large-bodied alabastra in dark grounds with applied threads combed into zigzag, feather, or festoon patterns over the body.
Broad slightly uneven rim-disk, with a few radiating tooling marks on upper surface; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; narrow shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; convex bottom; on upper body, two small vertical ring handles, unpierced, with short pointed trails, applied over trail pattern; on one side, irregular projections at top and bottom of bottom.
A yellow trail attached at lower edge of rim-disk; on body, alternating bands of yellow, white, and opaque turquoise blue, tooled from top of body to undercurve at bottom into a regular feather pattern in six vertical panels with alternating upward and downward strokes.
Broken and repaired around middle of body, with one small hole and several chips, and another oval hole at bottom of body below projection; large white inclusion in rim-disk; slight dulling and pitting, and faint iridescent weathering.
Among the more striking examples of glass perfume vessels of the fourth century B.C. are tall, large-bodied alabastra in dark grounds with applied threads combed into zigzag, feather, or festoon patterns over the body.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
- Period: Hellenistic
- Date: late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
- Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
- Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
- Dimensions: H.: 5 1/8 in. (13 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.194.777
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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