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Catalogue

126. Fragment of a Mosaic Glass Vessel

Accession Number 2003.258.6
Dimensions H. 3.0, W. 5.0, est. Diam. rim 8.0, Th. 0.3 cm; Wt. 7.40 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or Egypt
Material Transparent colorless, opaque white, and translucent blue 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

Fragment; part of the rim and upper body preserved.

Description

Deep hemispherical bowl. Composed of diagonally arranged canes of colorless glass within which a fine opaque white rod is spiraling. The rim forms a rope-like twisted cane of spiraling white and turquoise glass.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see comments on cat. 86. On the trade of small fragments of mosaic glass in nineteenth-century Rome and on the different techniques and classes of mosaic glass present in the Getty collection, see comments on cat. 95. On network mosaic, or reticella in particular, see comments on cat. 125.

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)