Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white. Broad slightly uneven rim-disk, made as a spiral coil around top of neck; cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; angular shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, with slight upward taper; convex bottom; on upper body, two vertical ring handles, applied over trail pattern, one slightly higher than the other. A yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; on body, alternating bands of yellow and white, tooled from top of body to undercurve at bottom into a widely spaced festoon pattern in nine vertical panels with fourteen upward strokes, forming round loops at top. Broken and repaired, with about one third of rim-disk missing, and small holes and chips in body; many white inclusions; some trails completely weathered, leaving hollow lines in body; slight dulling, faint iridescent weathering, and some deep pitting. Among the more striking examples of glass perfume vessels of the fourth century B.C. are tall, large-bodied alabastra in dark grounds with applied threads combed into zigzag, feather, or festoon patterns over the body.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Eastern Mediterranean or Italian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881