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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
Opaque red brown, streaked with sealing wax red, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue.
Broad horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; narrow rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, tapering upwards; uneven convex bottom; two large vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration; one higher than the other.
A yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; a turquoise blue trail applied to neck, wound in a close-set spiral down body; another yellow trail applied over the turquoise blue in an uneven band around lower body and bottom.
Intact, except for part of one ring handle and one circular hole in bottom; dulling and pitting, and faint iridescence.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Classical
  • Date: 5th century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group I
  • Dimensions: H.: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
  • Object Number: 91.1.1375
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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Glass oinochoe, Glass, Greek
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mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
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2nd–mid-1st century BCE
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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
5th century BCE
Glass alabastron (perfume bottle), Glass, Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
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