Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
Not on view
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles and base-knob in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white.
Broad horizontal rim-disk with rounded edge; cylindrical neck, expanding slightly downwards; sloping shoulder; elongated ovoid body, tapering sharply downwards; applied small circular base-knob with uneven edge and tooling indent on flat bottom; two slender strap handles applied to shoulder and drawn up, turned in, and pressed on to neck.
One yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another applied to top of body and wound horizontally and then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern, formed by uneven shallow vertical tooling indents around middle of body, where a second trail in white is added, mingling with the yellow trail; a third yellow trail wound in a spiral 3 1/2 times horizontally around lower part of body; another yellow trail wound unevenly around base-knob.
Broken and cracked, with one hole in neck and another small hole in body; most of one handle and central part of the other missing; dulling, pitting and patches of faint iridescent weathering.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Late Classical or Early Hellenistic
  • Date: mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean or Italian
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
  • Dimensions: H.: 4 1/2 in. (11.5 cm)
    Diam.: 2 5/16 x 1 3/16 in. (5.9 x 3 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.194.785
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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