Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Period:
Classical
Date:
late 6th–5th century B.C.
Culture:
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
Medium:
Glass; core-formed, Group I
Dimensions:
H.: 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
Classification:
Glass
Credit Line:
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:
17.194.793
  • Description

    Opaque light turquoise green, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white and opaque yellow.
    Broad, flat rim-disk, slanting to one side; short cylindrical neck; almost imperceptible sloping shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, tapering upward; uneven pushed-in bottom; at top of body, two lug handles, applied over trail pattern, both with tooled upward indents.
    A yellow trail attached to edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail and a white trail, applied after the yellow, wound spirally from top of body in alternate lines down to edge of bottom; both tooled, forming almost vertical indents in sides of body, with alternating upward and downward strokes, making a close-set zigzag pattern on lower half of body.
    Broken and repaired around middle of body, with cracks and some small holes; dulling and small patches of iridescent milky weathering and encrustation mainly around neck and rim-disk.

  • References

    Neuberg, F. 1949. Glass in Antiquity. London: Art Trade Press, no. 19, pl. VII (top row, fourth from left).

  • See also
    What
    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
130010500

Close