Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque turquoise blue.
Broad horizontal rim-disk, with radiating tooling marks on upper and lower surfaces; cylindrical neck, tapering upward; shallow, uneven shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper and slightly uneven surface; convex, slightly pointed bottom; below shoulder, two irregular trailed knob handles, applied over trail pattern.
A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; on body, alternating bands of yellow, white, and turquoise blue, tooled from shoulder to undercurve at bottom into a close-set feather pattern in seven vertical patterns with alternating upward and downward strokes.
Intact, except for small internal cracks on bottom; some of trails completely weathered, leaving only impressions in sides of body; many tiny white inclusions; some pitting and small areas of iridescent weathering.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Early Hellenistic
  • Date: late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
  • Culture: Eastern Mediterranean or South Italian
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
  • Dimensions: H.: 6 in. (15.2 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
  • Object Number: 30.115.36
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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