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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
Semi-opaque cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white.
Broad horizontal rim-disk, made as a spiral coil around top of neck; short cylindrical neck; narrow sloping shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body; convex bottom; on upper body, two vertical ring handles, pierced, applied over trail pattern.
A trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another trail applied from shoulder to edge of bottom, tooled into a festoon pattern with six upward strokes, forming loops at top of body.
Intact, except for part of trail on rim-disk; dulling, some pitting, and faint iridescent weathering.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Early Hellenistic
  • Date: late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
  • Dimensions: 2 9/16 × 1 × 3/4 in. (6.5 × 2.5 × 1.9 cm)
    Diam. of rim: 1 1/16 in. (2.6 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.194.763
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

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