158. Bowl

Condition

Surface is weathered, with small iridescent patches. This bowl was reassembled, with large fills near the rim.

Description

Hemispherical bowl. Splashing appears only on some parts of its interior, mainly on the upper body near the rim, and consists mainly of white specks and just a few red ones. On the exterior are tooling marks: two pairs of larger indentations and several, probably six, hardly visible, short, slanting indentations around the rim.

Comments and Comparanda

Splashware came into fashion in the early first century CE in the 30s, met its peak around the 50s, and went out of fashion around 70 CE (Berger 1960, p. 34; Biaggio-Simona 1991, vol. 1, p. 238). The decoration was achieved by rolling or marvering a glass bubble or paraison on a flat surface, such as a marver, where chips of colored glass were arranged. The chips could have been left in relief, which was a relatively rare occurrence, as opposed to the much more usual method in which the paraison was reheated and the chips were melted flush with the surface before further expansion (see amphoriskos cat. 355; Fremersdorf 1938, pp. 116–121, summarized in English in Harden et al. 1987, pp. 101–103; and Whitehouse 1997a, pp. 207–212). The majority of the provenanced finds were unearthed in Italy and the western Roman provinces, where the production site may have been located.

The fact that the vessel is so thick and uneven makes it quite plausible that it was slumped and thus predates the period in which splashware was in fashion, used on free- and mold-blown vessels like cat. 355 and cat. 165, respectively.

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 et al. 1974, pp. 140–141, no. 396, ill.

Exhibitions

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