Glass lentoid aryballos (perfume bottle)

Unknown

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

Semi-opaque yellowish green, with same color handles and cord; trails and blobs in opaque yellow, and trail on cord in opaque white. Broad flat rim-disk with radiating tooling marks on upper surface; cylindrical neck; almost horizontal shoulder; globular lentoid body; convex bottom; two large vertical ring handles attached to shoulder over cord. A trail attached unevenly at edge of rim-disk and partially projecting above rim; another unmarvered fine trail wound in a spiral twice around neck; an oval marvered blob applied to both faces of body; a large cord, twisted together with a white trail, attached under handles runs down sides and across bottom. Intact; some pitting, most of surfaces covered with thick creamy weathering and iridescence. Together with the other two similar aryballoi displayed here (91.1.1367 and 17.194.309), this bottle belongs to a small group of core-formed glass that may have been made in southern Italy, Sicily, or even Carthage. It has also been suggested that these bottles may have been worn as amuletic pendants around the neck.

Artist

Unknown

Date

4th–3rd century BCE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Greek

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915