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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 6th–5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
Opaque dark red brown, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white.
Slightly uneven horizontal rim-disk, with jagged edge to mouth; short cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; narrow rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, tapering upwards; convex bottom; two large vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration; one higher than the other.
A thick yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied to base of neck together with a white trail, overlaid on the yellow; both wound in a close-set spiral around body to bottom; yellow trail ending in a swirl on bottom.
Intact; very slight dulling, pitting, and weathering.

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: 4 × 1 7/16 × 1 in. (10.2 × 3.6 × 2.6 cm)
    Diam. of rim: 1 1/4 in. (3.1 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.194.755
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle), Glass, Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
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