127. Fragment of a Mosaic Glass Vessel

Condition

Fragment; part of the rim and upper body preserved.

Description

Deep hemispherical bowl. The body was formed by obliquely arranged single-colored bands in the following order: blue, turquoise, and white. The rim is finished with an applied twisted coil of purple and white 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. This bowl belongs to a relatively rare class of mosaic ware, Striped Mosaic ware, found mostly in Italy and neighboring regions. It is known as “parallel-row pattern” glass and is made exclusively of cut lengths of single network canes placed and fused next to each other and then sagged over a former mold. On the sagging technique, see Stern and Schlick-Nolte 1994, pp. 68–69. Both shallow and deep bowls were produced with this technique. For general information on the class and parallels, see Grose 1989, pp. 284–292, nos. 318–354. For a parallel production, see comments on cat. 128. In addition, published parallels are known from sites such as Vindonissa (dated to the Claudian or Neronian period; Berger 1960, pp. 9–13, nos. 4–5, plate 1).

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); by 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004

Bibliography

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 123, no. 332.

Exhibitions

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