Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles and base-knob in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white.
Irregular oval-shaped horizontal rim with tooling marks on top surface; tall conical neck; uneven sloping shoulder; large ovoid body, tapering downwards; applied coil base-knob; strap handles applied in a large pads to shoulder, drawn up and slightly outward, then curving in and pressed on to top of neck under rim. Irregular tooling indents and weathered scars around lower body.
White trail applied to middle of neck, drawn across shoulder, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around upper half of body, formed by uneven vertical tooling indents, and ending in a horizontal line around center of body; yellow trail applied on rim and wound down neck in spiral over white trail, drawn across shoulder, then mingling with white trail in zigzag pattern, and continuing five times around lower body as a fairly thick horizontal line; an area under one handle where trails have not been tooled but left as parallel horizontal lines.
Broken and repaired with one handle reattached and cracks around lower body with one hole in body; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.
Irregular oval-shaped horizontal rim with tooling marks on top surface; tall conical neck; uneven sloping shoulder; large ovoid body, tapering downwards; applied coil base-knob; strap handles applied in a large pads to shoulder, drawn up and slightly outward, then curving in and pressed on to top of neck under rim. Irregular tooling indents and weathered scars around lower body.
White trail applied to middle of neck, drawn across shoulder, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around upper half of body, formed by uneven vertical tooling indents, and ending in a horizontal line around center of body; yellow trail applied on rim and wound down neck in spiral over white trail, drawn across shoulder, then mingling with white trail in zigzag pattern, and continuing five times around lower body as a fairly thick horizontal line; an area under one handle where trails have not been tooled but left as parallel horizontal lines.
Broken and repaired with one handle reattached and cracks around lower body with one hole in body; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)
- Period: Hellenistic
- Date: 3rd century BCE
- Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
- Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
- Dimensions: H.: 4 5/16 x 1 15/16 in. (11 x 5 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.194.585
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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