Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Translucent cobalt blue, with same color pad-base and colorless handles; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white. Broad, irregular, and slightly inward-sloping rim-disk, with jagged vertical lip to mouth; cylindrical neck, expanding downward; broad sloping shoulder; straight-sided ovoid body; broad circular pad-base, flattened but uneven on underside and with round edge; two vertical s-shaped handles applied on shoulder, trailed up along lower part of neck, and pressed on to underside of rim and top neck; one large translucent blue blob flattened into side just above pad-base. A yellow trail and a white trail attached at edge of rim-disk, wound down spirally and tooled into a festoon pattern on neck and shoulder, but on body tooled into an irregular festoon pattern, with twelve alternating upward and downward strokes, the yellow trail ending on lower body but the white trail continuing to pad-base. Body complete, but parts of rim-disk and both handles missing; patches of limy encrustation with faint iridescence.

Artist

Unknown

Date

2nd–1st century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917