160. Beaker

Condition

Severely weathered and reassembled. The surface bears some patchy iridescence, accretions, and flaking. Small chips missing near the rim.

Description

Cracked-off, vertical, slightly everted rim; cylindrical body; flat bottom.

Crisp relief. The body is divided into three friezes separated by single horizontal ridges. Six stylized wreaths are represented on each of the upper and lower friezes. Each wreath consists of two concentric circles joined by radial lines rendering the foliage, probably laurel leaves; wavy lines below each wreath indicate the ends of the ribbons dangling below the wreath.

The central frieze contains an inscription in capital Greek. Two diametrically opposed vertical palm fronds divide the inscription into two almost equal parts: ΛΑΒΕ ΤΗΝ // ΝΕΙΚΗΝ labe ten neiken (“seize the victory”). The Ν in ΤΗΝ is inverted.

Flat bottom, with a faint sunken dot in the center surrounded by a slightly raised ring placed at 1 cm from the outer edge of the bottom.

Comments and Comparanda

This beaker belongs to a larger group of first-century mold-blown cylindrical beakers (Harden 1935, pp. 163–186, groups E, F, Ki, L), usually decorated with inscriptions, wreaths, and palm fronds (cats. 160–161), straight plants (cat. 162), or vine scrolls (cat. 163). Mold-blowing in general had probably already appeared in the first decade CE (Stern 1995, pp. 65–66; Lightfoot et al. 2014, p. 26) and seems to die out by the end of the first century (Price 1991, p. 74). There is a known example from Pompeii that obviously predates the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE (Scatozza Höricht 1995, p. 79, fig. 13a). An additional clue regarding a closer date for the beakers is provided by the type of glass used for their manufacture. They are made of “naturally colored” glass, which became popular after the middle of the century, mainly during the third quarter of the first century CE.

There are many published cylindrical beakers with wreaths and the inscription ΛΑΒΕ ΤΗΝ Ν(Ε)ΙΚΗΝ. They constitute Harden’s (Harden 1935, pp. 176–179) group K1, with different spellings (ΝΙΚΗΝ vs. ΝΕΙΚΗΝ) or the inversion of Ν in ΤΗΝ, like in this particular example, as well as different arrangements of the inscription, which is probably the most numerous of all other groups. This particular beaker belongs to subgroup K1iii, identified by the six wreaths on each frieze and the inscription in one single line. Numerous examples are known and most of them were found on the Syro-Palestinian coast and Cyprus, and a few in Greece, the Black Sea coast, and Sardinia, indicating a production site on the Syro-Palestinian coast, as has already been proposed by other glass researchers (Harden 1935, pp. 180–181; Harden 1944, pp. 86–87; Wight 2000, p. 68–69). Marianne Stern (Stern 1995, p. 98) has proposed that they were produced in or near Sidon. Other examples include Harden 1944, pp. 94, 292; Matheson 1980, p. 53, no. 134; Braun and Haevernick 1981, p. 121, plate 44.3; McClellan 1983, pp. 77–78; Stern 1995, pp. 98–100, nos. 2–4q; Zelazowski 1996, fig. 5; Kunina 1997, pp. 133–134, fig. 23; Duncan-Jones 2000, p. 148, fig. 3; Whitehouse 2001a, pp. 26–27, no. 491; Arveiller-Dulong and Nenna 2005, pp. 183, 194, no. 536, plate 38; Alekseeva and Sorokina 2007, pp. 28–29, plate 22:2; Israeli 2011, p. 100; Antonaras 2022a, p. 45, no. 144.

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, p. 162, no. 454.

Exhibitions

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