Glass gold-band mosaic lid fragment

Unknown

1st half of 1st century CE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent cobalt blue, purple, turquoise blue streaked with yellow, appearing green, opaque white, and colorless encasing gold leaf. Flat lid with rounded edge to vertical cylindrical sides; plain tapering rim. Marbled mosaic pattern formed from serpentine lengths of canes in different colors with streaks of white, some overlapping to give different shades and colors. On exterior, concentric groove. Broken with weathered edges, about one third of lid surviving; dulling, iridescence, and patches of thin creamy weathering. This fragment probably belongs to a small lidded pyxis.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1st half of 1st century CE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Roman

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917