Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Translucent blue, with handles in opaque yellow; trails in opaque yellow. Broad flat rim-disk with rough edge to mouth; very short concave cylindrical neck; narrow uneven shoulder; straight-sided body with upward taper; convex bottom, slightly flattened to one side; below shoulder, two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails applied over trail decoration; one slightly higher than the other. One trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another applied at top of body and wound down in spiral six times, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around the central part of body, formed by shallow vertical tooling indents; below this, trail wound twice horizontally around lower body. Intact, except for knob on tail of one handle; slight dulling and pitting, and most of body, especially the trails, covered with creamy iridescent weathering.

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