Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Opaque red brown, with handles in a mixture of opaque turquoise blue and opaque yellow; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue. Uneven horizontal rim-disk; cylindrical neck; narrow rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, tapering upwards; convex bottom; two large vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration; one higher than the other. A mixed turquoise blue and yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied to neck together with a turquoise blue trail, overlaid on the yellow; both wound in a spiral around upper body, tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern with alternate upward and downward strokes;both ending in swirls on bottom. Body intact, but almost half of rim-disk missing and most of one handle; slight dulling and pitting, and patches of brown enamel-like weathering.

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