Glass jug (oinochoe) with snake-thread decoration
Colorless with pale blue green tinge; handle in same color; opaque white, opaque blue, and colorless trails.
Trefoil rim, with rounded lip; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; sloping shoulder; piriform body; tubular base ring; flat bottom with pontil scar at center; strap handle applied in a long pad to shoulder, drawn up and outwards in a curve and then turned inwards (and probably dropped on to back of rim).
Around top of neck, a fine blue trail wound 2½ times in a spiral; on body, four separate trails, flattened and serrated, alternately white and blue, each making a similar abstract curvilinear pattern, and between them four vertical colorless trails, each in a compact key pattern; on handle, part of a single blue trail with projection at top.
Body complete, but broken and repaired handle, with back of rim and top of handle missing; pinprick bubbles and blowing striations, with larger elongated bubbles in handle; pale brownish soil encrustation, whitish weathering, and iridescence.
Trefoil rim, with rounded lip; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; sloping shoulder; piriform body; tubular base ring; flat bottom with pontil scar at center; strap handle applied in a long pad to shoulder, drawn up and outwards in a curve and then turned inwards (and probably dropped on to back of rim).
Around top of neck, a fine blue trail wound 2½ times in a spiral; on body, four separate trails, flattened and serrated, alternately white and blue, each making a similar abstract curvilinear pattern, and between them four vertical colorless trails, each in a compact key pattern; on handle, part of a single blue trail with projection at top.
Body complete, but broken and repaired handle, with back of rim and top of handle missing; pinprick bubbles and blowing striations, with larger elongated bubbles in handle; pale brownish soil encrustation, whitish weathering, and iridescence.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass jug (oinochoe) with snake-thread decoration
- Period: Late Imperial
- Date: 2nd–3rd century CE
- Culture: Roman, Rhineland
- Medium: Glass; blown and trailed
- Dimensions: H. 5 1/2in. (14cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881
- Object Number: 81.10.180
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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