Condition
Intact body; missing lid.
Description
Vertical rim, ground back to create a narrow ledge on which the lid would sit; deep cylindrical body; flat bottom with two concentric circular grooves 0.5 cm from the outer edge. Both the inside and the outside are ground and polished.
Formed from wavy lengths of a composite cane comprising five bands in the following order: an opaque white with a dark, probably amber-yellow layer; a translucent dark blue layer; a transparent amber-yellow layer encasing a gold leaf; a translucent green layer; and an opaque white and transparent amber-yellow layer.
Comments and Comparanda
On gold-band technique, see cat. 145. For other comparanda, see Oliver, Andrew, Jr. 1967. “Late Hellenistic Glass in the Metropolitan Museum.” Journal of Glass Studies 9: 13–33., pp. 25–26; von Saldern, Axel. 1968. Ancient Glass in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts., no. 17; Goldstein, Sidney M. 1979. Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glas., p. 204, no. 559, plates 31, 42; Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., p. 338, nos. 602–604; Tatton-Brown, Veronica, and Carol Andrews. 1991. “Before the Invention of Glassblowing.” In Five Thousand Years of Glass, ed. Hugh Tait, 21–61. London: British Museum Press., pp. 58–59, fig. 68 right; Kunina, Nina. 1997. The Art Treasures of Russia: Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage/ARS Publishers., p. 99, no. 97, which is identical in dimensions; Arveiller-Dulong, Véronique, and Marie-Dominique Nenna. 2000. Les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre 1: Contenants à parfums en verre moulé sur noyau et vaisselle moulée: VIIe siècle avant J.-C.–Ier siècle après J.-C. Paris: Somogy., p. 155, no. 193; Mandruzzato, Luciana, and Alessandra Marcante. 2007. Vetri antichi del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia: Balsamari, olle e pissidi. Corpus delle Collezioni del Vetro in Friuli Venezia Giulia 3. Venice: Comitato Nazionale Italiano, AIHV., p. 115, no. 360; Cesarin, Giulia. 2017. “Gold-Band Glass Fragments in the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in Cologne: Considerations about the Techniques.” In Annales du 20e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, Friboug-Romont, 7–11 septembre 2015, ed. Sofie Wolf and Ann de Pury-Gysel, 82–86. Rahden: Marie Leidorf., pp. 84–85, fig. 5. For an overview of all published examples, see Cesarin, Giulia. 2019. Gold-Band Glass: From Hellenistic to Roman Luxury Glass Production. Padua: Quasar., pp. 165–179, no. 48–105, plates VIII–XI.
Provenance
1952, Mutiaux Collection [sold, Ancienne Collection Mutiaux: sixième vente: Objets d’art de haute curiosité, Hôtel Drouot, May 9, 1952, lot 75]; by 1952–still in 1957, Ray Winfield Smith, American, 1897–1982; 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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 104, no. 275; p. 106, plate no. 275.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 103, 114, fig. 82.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)