Glass mosaic perfume bottle (unguentarium)
Translucent honey brown and opaque white.
Thick, flaring rim with beveled upper edge; tall cylindrical neck, expanding downward; ovoid body, tapering to solid pedestal base with concave side and flat bottom.
Mosaic pattern, imitating banded agate, formed from large, irregularly shaped sections of a single cane in a brown ground with multiple white spiral and zigzag threads, drawn up in a twisted spiral on neck.
Broken and repaired, with some minor chips and cracks, and one area of fill on rim and upper neck, and another on lower body and upper part of base; pitting of surface bubbles and faint iridescence.
Rotary grinding marks on exterior.
This bottle marks a transitional stage in the production of closed forms in glass—from the core-formed and cast vessels of the Hellenistic world to the ubiquitous blown glass of the Roman Empire.
Thick, flaring rim with beveled upper edge; tall cylindrical neck, expanding downward; ovoid body, tapering to solid pedestal base with concave side and flat bottom.
Mosaic pattern, imitating banded agate, formed from large, irregularly shaped sections of a single cane in a brown ground with multiple white spiral and zigzag threads, drawn up in a twisted spiral on neck.
Broken and repaired, with some minor chips and cracks, and one area of fill on rim and upper neck, and another on lower body and upper part of base; pitting of surface bubbles and faint iridescence.
Rotary grinding marks on exterior.
This bottle marks a transitional stage in the production of closed forms in glass—from the core-formed and cast vessels of the Hellenistic world to the ubiquitous blown glass of the Roman Empire.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass mosaic perfume bottle (unguentarium)
- Period: Late Hellenistic
- Date: 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE
- Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
- Medium: Glass; probably cast and blown
- Dimensions: H.: 8 1/4in. (21cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.194.282
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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Roman
1st half of 1st century CE
Greek, probably Eastern Mediterranean
2nd–early 1st century BCE
Greek
mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
Greek
ca. 375–350 BCE
East Greek
4th quarter of the 6th century BCE
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