Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

5th century BCE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent dark purple, appearing black, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white and opaque turquoise blue. Broad slightly uneven horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck with downward taper; rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body with upward taper and curving in at bottom; two vertical ring handles with tails, applied over trail decoration. Turquoise blue trail attached at edge of rim-disk; a white trail applied to bottom of neck, wound in a spiral around top of body, then tooled into an irregular, close-set zigzag pattern, with slight vertical ribbing around sides. Broken and repaired, with most of bottom and part of lower body missing, several holes and chips in lower body, and knobs at bottom of handle tails also missing; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.

Artist

Unknown

Date

5th century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881