Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

late 6th–5th century BCE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Opaque white, with handles in same color; trails in translucent purple. Broad, flat rim-disk; short cylindrical neck; narrow rounded shoulder; straight-sided body with upward taper; convex bottom; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails applied over trail decoration. One trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another applied in a raised pad at top of body and wound down in spiral, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around middle of body; below this, a third fine trail wound twice horizontally around body. Broken and repaired, with part of rim-disk and most of one handle missing, and many cracks in body; slight dulling and pitting, with patches of iridescent weathering. These glass vessels with opaque white bodies and purple threads have been found throughout the Greek world, but most examples are from cemeteries and sanctuaries in the eastern Mediterranean.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 6th–5th century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881