Glass oinochoe (perfume jug)

Unknown

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handle and pad-base in same color; trails in opaque yellow, opaque white, and opaque turquoise blue. Applied trefoil rim-disk with long spout; cylindrical neck; narrow angular shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, expanding downward, and then curving in to applied low circular pad-base with uneven flattish bottom; strap handle attached in pad to upper body over trail decoration, drawn up and round in a loop, arching above the rim-disk, and pressed onto back of rim-disk and top of neck. A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another unmarvered yellow trail wound spirally five and a quarter times around neck; a third yellow trail, marvered, begun on shoulder and wound round on body, tooled into a feather pattern and extending as far as the point of greatest diameter; mingling with it in alternating bands, turquoise blue and white trails in nine vertical panels with alternating upward and downward strokes; a fine turquoise blue trail wound round edge of pad-base. Intact, except for weathered chip in rim-disk; dulling, pitting, and much of surface covered with creamy white weathering and iridescence. Among the rarer shapes of Mediterranean Group II vessels are the tall, slender oinochoe (jug/pitcher) with a trefoil spout and the lentoid aryballos with twisted glass canes running between the ring handles.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Eastern Mediterranean or South Italian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917