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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 156
Opaque dark red brown, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue.
Broad slightly uneven horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck; rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body with slight upward taper; convex bottom; two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration.
Intermingled yellow and turquoise blue trails attached at edge of rim-disk; a yellow trail applied to bottom of neck and a turquoise blue trail applied to top of body and overlaid on the yellow; both wound in a spiral around top of body, then tooled first into an inverted festoon and lower down into a close-set zigzag pattern; the yellow trail continuing in a spiral around bottom.
Broken and repaired, with several holes and chips in body; dulling, pitting, and faint iridescent weathering.

During the fifth century B.C., the colors of Mediterranean Group I vessels expanded from blue or opaque white to include dark green, golden brown, and opaque brick red.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Classical
  • Date: 5th century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group I
  • Dimensions: H. 5 1/2 in (14 cm); Diameter: 2 5/8 in (6.7 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.194.744
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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