Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue. Inward-sloping rim-disk, with radiating tooling marks on upper surface; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards with fine tooling line around base; sloping shoulder; top-shaped body; two vertical strap handles applied to shoulder, drawn up and in, and pressed onto underside of rim-disk and top of neck. A fine yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another thick yellow trail applied on edge of shoulder, tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern on upper half of body, where a turquoise blue trail is added, mingling with the yellow, forming vertical ridges in sides; below, a yellow and a turquoise blue trail wound horizontally around body. Broken with part of lower body and all of base-knob missing, and one small weathered chip in rim-disk; slight pitting and some encrustation around handles. This broken example enables us to see the rough and pitted interior surface of the bottle.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 6th–5th century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917