Glass flask in the form of a fish

Unknown

3rd century CE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Uncertain color (probably colorless); trails in same glass. Rounded, thickened rim; neck bent upward to form tail, tapering towards body; body flattened into irregular lentoid shape; bottom drawn out in two solid projections to form mouth. Fine trail wound once round neck; another trail wound once around lower body to form gills; between gills and mouth, two applied blobs for eyes, one on each side of body; long thick trail applied to upper edge of body from behind mouth to base of neck, pinched into thirteen flat, projecting flanges, for dorsal fin; and two large blobs, tooled into vertical, flat flanges, applied to top of body as rear fins (these are anatomically incorrect). Intact; pinprick bubbles; severe pitting and weathering, with most of surfaces covered in a grey, enamel-like weathering layer and some patches of brilliant iridescence. Glass containers in the form of a fish were probably made in the Syro-Palestinian region. Whether their shape relates specifically to their contents (that is, a sauce to pour on a fish dish) or is merely a decorative whim cannot now be determined. It is unlikely, however, that they had any specifically Christian symbolic associations.

Artist

Unknown

Date

3rd century CE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Roman

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Bequest of Mary Anna Palmer Draper, 1915