Glass gold-band mosaic bottle
Translucent cobalt blue, turquoise green, and purple, opaque white, and colorless encasing shattered gold leaf.
Everted, horizontal rim with beveled underside to lip; cylindrical neck; squat globular body; flat bottom.
Gold-band mosaic pattern formed from a single serpentine length of layered canes formed in the following order: green outlined in white and purple, colorless with gold leaf, and blue outlined in white and purple; the length is wound three times round body, being fused together across bottom. A single fine horizontal line incised on upper surface of rim near outer edge; a band of two parallel horizontal grooves around top body; and another single horizontal groove on body at point of greatest diameter.
Intact, except for deep, weathered chips in side of body; slight dulling and pitting, iridescence, whitish weathering, and areas of soil encrustation.
Rotary grinding marks on exterior.
Small bottles and lidded pyxides (boxes) in mosaic and luxury gold-band glass were made during the Julio-Claudian period. But as glass-blowing became more widespread during the mid-1st century, they were quickly supplanted by free-blown versions, often in more transparent glass that allowed one to see the contents.
Everted, horizontal rim with beveled underside to lip; cylindrical neck; squat globular body; flat bottom.
Gold-band mosaic pattern formed from a single serpentine length of layered canes formed in the following order: green outlined in white and purple, colorless with gold leaf, and blue outlined in white and purple; the length is wound three times round body, being fused together across bottom. A single fine horizontal line incised on upper surface of rim near outer edge; a band of two parallel horizontal grooves around top body; and another single horizontal groove on body at point of greatest diameter.
Intact, except for deep, weathered chips in side of body; slight dulling and pitting, iridescence, whitish weathering, and areas of soil encrustation.
Rotary grinding marks on exterior.
Small bottles and lidded pyxides (boxes) in mosaic and luxury gold-band glass were made during the Julio-Claudian period. But as glass-blowing became more widespread during the mid-1st century, they were quickly supplanted by free-blown versions, often in more transparent glass that allowed one to see the contents.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass gold-band mosaic bottle
- Period: Early Imperial
- Date: 1st half of 1st century CE
- Culture: Roman
- Medium: Glass; cast and blown, and cut
- Dimensions: H. 2 15/16 in. (7.4 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
- Object Number: 30.115.16
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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