Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles and base-knob in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white. Broad horizontal rim-disk with rounded edge; cylindrical neck, expanding slightly downwards; sloping shoulder; elongated ovoid body, tapering sharply downwards; applied small circular base-knob with uneven edge and tooling indent on flat bottom; two slender strap handles applied to shoulder and drawn up, turned in, and pressed on to neck. One yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another applied to top of body and wound horizontally and then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern, formed by uneven shallow vertical tooling indents around middle of body, where a second trail in white is added, mingling with the yellow trail; a third yellow trail wound in a spiral 3 1/2 times horizontally around lower part of body; another yellow trail wound unevenly around base-knob. Broken and cracked, with one hole in neck and another small hole in body; most of one handle and central part of the other missing; dulling, pitting and patches of faint iridescent weathering.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-4th–early 3rd century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek, Eastern Mediterranean or Italian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917