Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Translucent cobalt blue, with one handle in dark almost opaque brownish purple and the other in opaque yellow; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white.
Horizontal rim-disk with rounded edge and radiating tooling marks on upper surface; concave cylindrical neck; straight-sided fusiform body with rounded profile expanding downward, then tapering in to pointed bottom with undercurve flattened on one side; two horizontal lug handles applied at top of body over trails, the yellow one higher and more pronounced; small irregular blob of opaque white applied over trails and projecting from side slightly above point of greatest diameter.
White trail applied near bottom, wound upwards in a spiral to carination, tooled into a festoon pattern, with ten upward strokes, then wound again in a spiral up neck, ending with a backward loop below rim; yellow trail applied around rim-disk, then drawn down in a spiral around neck, tooled into festoon pattern, continuing in a spiral and ending around bottom in a thick swirl, covering the white trail.
Intact, but crack on one side of neck and top of body; some pitting, slight dulling, but very little weathering.
Horizontal rim-disk with rounded edge and radiating tooling marks on upper surface; concave cylindrical neck; straight-sided fusiform body with rounded profile expanding downward, then tapering in to pointed bottom with undercurve flattened on one side; two horizontal lug handles applied at top of body over trails, the yellow one higher and more pronounced; small irregular blob of opaque white applied over trails and projecting from side slightly above point of greatest diameter.
White trail applied near bottom, wound upwards in a spiral to carination, tooled into a festoon pattern, with ten upward strokes, then wound again in a spiral up neck, ending with a backward loop below rim; yellow trail applied around rim-disk, then drawn down in a spiral around neck, tooled into festoon pattern, continuing in a spiral and ending around bottom in a thick swirl, covering the white trail.
Intact, but crack on one side of neck and top of body; some pitting, slight dulling, but very little weathering.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
- Period: Hellenistic
- Date: 2nd–mid-1st century BCE
- Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
- Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group III
- Dimensions: 4 1/2 × 1 5/8 in. (11.4 × 4.1 cm)
Diam. of rim: 1 in. (2.5 cm) - Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of Edward Robinson, 1911
- Object Number: 11.108
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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