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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 6th–5th century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 171
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white.
Uneven rim-disk, with tooling indents in upper surface; cylindrical neck; narrow rounded shoulder; elongated oval body with marked upward taper; convex, slightly pointed bottom; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails applied over trail decoration; one with a longer tail than the other.
A yellow trail attached unevenly at edge of rim-disk; a white trail applied as a thick blob at top of body and wound down in spiral ten times and overlaid with a yellow trail, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around the central part of body, flanked at top and bottom by overlaid thicker yellow trails; below this, the white trail continuesfive and a half times horizontally around lower body, again overlaid with a yellow trail; one large round blue blob protrudes from side of bottom.
Complete, except for part of trail around rim-dis and some surface cracks around bottom; dulling and pitting, and most of body covered with thin creamy iridescent 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.: 4 5/8 in. (11.7 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
  • Object Number: 91.1.1333
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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