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Glass flask

4th century CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 162
Translucent yellow green; handles and trails in translucent green.
Rim folded over and in, and smoothed into flaring mouth; slender cylindrical neck, with horizontal tooling indent around base; elongated piriform body, with horizontal tooling around base; tubular splayed base ring, made by folding; bottom with central knob and pontil scar; two handles applied as trails to lower body, drawn up side to just below base of neck, then drawn up, up, and in, forming loops, and trailed off upwards over decoration around neck.
Single horizontal trail wound once around underside of mouth; another trail wound once around neck just below mid-point; handle trails notched fifteen times along length.
Intact; some bubbles, elongated in neck; dulling and iridescent weathering, with some soil encrustation on interior.

Flasks with two loop handles, each with a long pincered trail down the side of the body, form a distinctive group of late Roman glassware from the East. Examples have been recorded from rock-tombs at sites in modern Israel and Jordan.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass flask
  • Period: Late Imperial
  • Date: 4th century CE
  • Culture: Roman, Syrian
  • Medium: Glass; blown, tooled, and trailed
  • Dimensions: H. 7 13/16 in. (19.8 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Museum Accession
  • Object Number: X.21.201
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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