Glass aryballos (perfume bottle)

late 6th–5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 171
Semi opaque turquoise green, with same color handles; trails in opaque yellow and possibly opaque turquoise blue.
Uneven inward-sloping rim-disk; cylindrical neck; broad angular shoulder; almost spherical body; convex bottom, with linear tooling indent across it; two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration, extend from top of body to underside of rim-disk; handles are not directly opposite each other but rather more to one side.
A yellow trail applied to outer edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied on shoulder and wound spirally, at first in horizontal lines, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around central section of body, where another broader trail is added to the zigzag, mingling with the yellow; below, a fine yellow trail wound horizontally twice around body.
Complete except for chip in rim-disk; film of whitish weathering and brilliant iridescence covering most of bottle.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass aryballos (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Classical
  • Date: late 6th–5th century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group I
  • Dimensions: H.: 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881
  • Object Number: 81.10.300
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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