Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white (appearing very pale greyish blue) and opaque yellow. Rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck; sloping shoulder; slightly bulbous cylindrical body; small convex bottom; on body, two large lug handles, applied over trail pattern, both with tooled upward indents. A white trail applied to neck and wound spirally down across body, ending in circle around bottom; another yellow applied to rim-disk and trailed down across neck and upper body over white trail, tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern with shallow vertical ribbing around middle of body, then continuing in uneven horizontal lines and ending with a thick blob spiral around base of body. Broken and repaired; most of rim-disk and part of neck missing, one large crack with losses around body, and one large hole around bottom; dulling, some pitting, and iridescent milky weathering.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean or Italian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881