Glass jug (oinochoe) with snake-thread decoration

Unknown

2nd–3rd century CE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Colorless with pale blue green tinge; handle in same color; opaque white, opaque blue, and colorless trails. Trefoil rim, with rounded lip; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; sloping shoulder; piriform body; tubular base ring; flat bottom with pontil scar at center; strap handle applied in a long pad to shoulder, drawn up and outwards in a curve and then turned inwards (and probably dropped on to back of rim). Around top of neck, a fine blue trail wound 2½ times in a spiral; on body, four separate trails, flattened and serrated, alternately white and blue, each making a similar abstract curvilinear pattern, and between them four vertical colorless trails, each in a compact key pattern; on handle, part of a single blue trail with projection at top. Body complete, but broken and repaired handle, with back of rim and top of handle missing; pinprick bubbles and blowing striations, with larger elongated bubbles in handle; pale brownish soil encrustation, whitish weathering, and iridescence.

Artist

Unknown

Date

2nd–3rd century CE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Roman, Rhineland

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881