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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white.
Horizontal rim-disk, with thick rounded edge; tall cylindrical neck, tapering upwards; rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, curving in to convex bottom with slightly pointed tip.
A trail attached at edge of rim-disk; on body, a single trail wound down in a spiral, forming five horizontal bands, at top and bottom as almost horizontal lines but on most of body tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern with alternating upward and downward strokes forming shallow vertical ribs.
Complete but most of trail on rim-disk missing; some dulling, pitting, and faint iridescent weathering.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
  • Period: Early Hellenistic
  • Date: late 4th–early 3rd century BCE
  • Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group II
  • Dimensions: H.: 4 13/16 in. (12.2 cm)
  • Classification: Glass
  • Credit Line: Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
  • Object Number: 30.115.83
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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mid-6th century BCE
Glass oinochoe, Glass, Greek
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mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE
Glass alabastron (perfume bottle), Glass, Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
2nd–mid-1st century BCE
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Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
5th century BCE
Glass alabastron (perfume bottle), Glass, Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
5th century BCE

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