of

109. Fragment of a Bowl

Accession Number 2003.258.5
Dimensions L 3.1, W. 3.9, Th. 0.1 cm; Wt. 4.17 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or possibly Egypt
Material Translucent dark blue and purple and opaque yellow and red glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Made from a polychrome disk-shaped blank assembled from fused-together lengths and sections of round mosaic canes; slumped; rotary polished
View in Collection

Condition

Body fragment of a vessel, broken all around. The exterior is polished, probably in modern times. The interior is slightly dull and affected by weathering, particularly the opaque glass.

Description

The piece consists of polygonal tesserae fused together. Each tessera comprises a central red rod surrounded by eight yellow petals outlined in translucent purple. Each flower is set in a wide, translucent dark blue layer of glass.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see comments on cat. 86. On the trade of small fragments of mosaic glass in the nineteenth century and on the different techniques and classes of mosaic glass present in the Getty collection, see comments on cat. 95.

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); by 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his son, Gert Oppenländer, 1988; 1988–2003, Gert Oppenländer (Waiblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003

Bibliography

, p. 123, no. 332; p. 121, plate no. 332.

Exhibitions

Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)