15. Alabastron

Condition

Almost fully preserved; neck is mended, and part of one handle is missing. In the interior, visible light-colored remains of the core.

Description

Transluecent dark blue ground with opaque turquoise and yellow decoration. Moderately broad, horizontal rim-disk, uneven and sloping inward; short, cylindrical neck; horizontal shoulder; ovular body; convex bottom. Below the shoulder two opposing yellow ring handles with knobbed tails.

An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is wound around the rim. A marvered opaque yellow thread is spirally wound five times in almost horizontal lines around the upper body above the handles. Below is another yellow thread wound twice at the middle of the handles. At central and lower body, a thick turquoise and a fine yellow thread are spirally wound five and nine times respectively, and are dragged upward and downward alternately 30 times, forming a zigzag pattern. Below this band, near the bottom, a yellow and a turquoise thread are each wound once. The central part of the body is ribbed by the tooling that formed the zigzag pattern.

Comments and Comparanda

On core-formed alabastra, see comments on cat. 10. For the classification of this particular alabastron, see Grose 1989, class I:B, alabastron form I:5: pp. 137–138, nos. 78–79.

Provenance

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

von Saldern 1974, pp. 74–75, no. 197.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

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