Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

2nd–mid 1st century BCE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent deep purple, with lighter, reddish streaks; handles in translucent dark blue; trails in opaque white and another in now indeterminate color. Thick, almost horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck; straight-sided fusiform body expanding downward, then tapering in to pointed bottom; two horizontal lug handles applied over trail at top of body, one slightly higher than the other. Trails attached at bottom, drawn up in a spiral to point of carination, tooled into a festoon pattern with thirteen upward strokes, wound round again in spiral to top of body, with white trail ending in a backward loop. Broken around top of neck with almost half of rim-disk missing, and one trail completely weathered, leaving only indentation in body; dulling, severe pitting and weathering, and faint iridescence.

Artist

Unknown

Date

2nd–mid 1st century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917