Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 6th–5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 156
Opaque white, with handles in same color; trails in translucent purple.
Broad, flat rim-disk; short cylindrical neck; narrow rounded shoulder; straight-sided body with upward taper; convex bottom; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails applied over trail decoration.
One trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another applied in a raised pad at top of body and wound down in spiral, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around middle of body; below this, a third fine trail wound twice horizontally around body.
Broken and repaired, with part of rim-disk and most of one handle missing, and many cracks in body; slight dulling and pitting, with patches of iridescent weathering.

These glass vessels with opaque white bodies and purple threads have been found throughout the Greek world, but most examples are from cemeteries and sanctuaries in the eastern Mediterranean.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Classical
  • Date: late 6th–5th century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group I
  • Dimensions: H. 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm)
    diameter of mouth 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881
  • Object Number: 81.10.305
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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