Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue.
Thick horizontal rim-disk, with rough inner edge to mouth; cylindrical, slanting neck; small sloping shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; convex bottom, with small tooled hole to one side; on body, two lug handles, applied over trail pattern; one with a tooled upward horizontal indent, the other with a sideways vertical indent.
A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another broader yellow trail applied around top of body and wound round in a spiral; another trail in turquoise added below, and both tooled in six alternating bands into a widely spaced feather pattern with five vertical panels of upward and downward strokes, ending around edge of bottom.
Complete, but broken and repaired around middle of body with one small hole; dulling, slight pitting, and iridescent brownish weathering.
Thick horizontal rim-disk, with rough inner edge to mouth; cylindrical, slanting neck; small sloping shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; convex bottom, with small tooled hole to one side; on body, two lug handles, applied over trail pattern; one with a tooled upward horizontal indent, the other with a sideways vertical indent.
A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another broader yellow trail applied around top of body and wound round in a spiral; another trail in turquoise added below, and both tooled in six alternating bands into a widely spaced feather pattern with five vertical panels of upward and downward strokes, ending around edge of bottom.
Complete, but broken and repaired around middle of body with one small hole; dulling, slight pitting, and iridescent brownish weathering.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
- Period: Late Classical or Hellenistic
- Date: mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
- Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
- Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
- Dimensions: H.: 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm)
Diam.: 1 1/8 x 1 1/8 in. (2.9 x 2.9 cm) - Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.194.587
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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