Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
Not on view
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white.
Broad horizontal rim-disk, with radiating tooling marks on underside; cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; narrow uneven shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; uneven convex bottom, with irregular tooling indents; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles, pierced horizontally, applied over trail pattern.
A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; a fine white trail begun below shoulder, wound spirally down to lower body, tooled into a festoon pattern with well-defined loops, some projecting around shoulder; a second yellow trail added over white near bottom of festoon pattern and continuing below as fine spiral, ending in large flattened blob.
Intact; dulling, pitting, and creamy iridescent weathering.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Late Classical or Hellenistic
  • Date: mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
  • Culture: Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
  • Dimensions: H.: 7 11/16 in. (19.5 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
  • Object Number: 91.1.1386
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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