Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 6th–5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
Opaque red brown, with handles in a mixture of opaque turquoise blue and opaque yellow; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue.
Uneven horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck; 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 mixed turquoise blue and yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied to neck together with a turquoise blue trail, overlaid on the yellow; both wound in a spiral around upper body, tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern with alternate upward and downward strokes;both ending in swirls on bottom.
Body intact, but almost half of rim-disk missing and most of one handle; slight dulling and pitting, and patches of brown enamel-like 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: H.: 3 3/4 in. (9.6 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.194.796
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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