Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Opaque dark olive green, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue. Broad horizontal rim-disk; short cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; barrow angular shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body; convex bottom; two vertical ring handles with small tails, applied over trail decoration. Yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; a second yellow trail applied on top of body and wound down in a spiral, tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern; halfway down pattern a turquoise blue trail is added, mingling with yellow; immediately below zigzag, a third unmarvered yellow trail wound horizontally twice around body. Intact; dulling, iridescence, and some reddish brown encrustation and 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