Condition
Intact.
Description
Everted, unworked rim sloping inward; slightly convex cylindrical sides; flat bottom. Below the rim, two raised horizontal ribs and pairs of palm fronds below, arranged tip to tip, appearing as a wreath encircling the vessel; below this is a Greek inscription in capital letters: ΚΑΤΑΧΑΙΡΕ ΚΑΙ ΕΥΦΡΑΙΝΟΥ katachaire kai euphrainou (“rejoice and be merry”). Two more raised ribs and a narrower band of palm fronds pointing to the right decorate the lower part of the body; the two side seams are concealed by vertical palm fronds. On underside of base, one raised concentric circle.
Comments and Comparanda
On first-century CE cylindrical beakers, see comments on cat. 160. There are several published cylindrical beakers with wreaths and the inscription ΚΑΤΑΧΑΙΡΕ ΚΑΙ ΕΥΦΡΑΙΝΟΥ. They constitute Harden’s (Harden, Donald Benjamin. 1935. “Romano-Syrian Glasses with Mould-Blown Inscriptions.” Journal of Roman Studies 25: 163–186., pp. 171–173) group Fii, the difference between the groups Fi and Fii being the spelling in the former of ΚΑΤΑΙΧΑΙΡΕ versus ΚΑΤΑΧΑΙΡΕ in the latter. For comparanda, see Harden, Donald Benjamin. 1935. “Romano-Syrian Glasses with Mould-Blown Inscriptions.” Journal of Roman Studies 25: 163–186., pp. 171–173, group Fii; Harden, Donald Benjamin. 1944. “Two Tomb-Groups of First Century AD from Yahmour, Syria, and the Supplement to the List of Romano-Syrian Glasses with Mould-Blown Inscriptions” and “Romano-Syrian Glass: A Postscript.” Syria 24: 81–95, 291–292., pp. 87–88, 292; McClellan, Murray. 1983. “Recent Finds from Greece of First-Century A.D. Mold Blown Glass.” Journal of Glass Studies 25: 71–78., pp. 76–77; Stern, Eva Marianne. 1995. The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., pp. 98–99; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., no. 54, pp. 125–126; Whitehouse, David B. 2001. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., pp. 22–23, nos. 485[Fi], 486[Fii]; Also, for beakers of the group Fi, i.e., with the variant of the inscription as KATAIXAIΡE KAI EYΦPAINOY: Mackworth-Young, G. 1949: “Excavations in Siphnos: The Roman Graves of the First Century AD,” BSA 44 (1949), 80–92., p. 85, plates 25:2, 26:2–3; Glass at the Fitzwilliam Museum. 1978. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., pp. 31–32, no. 51; Matheson, Susan B. 1980. Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery., p. 54, no. 135; Oliver, Andrew, Jr. 1980. Ancient Glass in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh. Pittsbourgh, PA: Carnegie Institute., p. 69, no. 63; Weinberg, Gladys D., and Murray C. McClellan. 1992. Glass Vessels in Ancient Greece: Their History Illustrated from the Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Athens: Archaeological Receipt Fund., p. 128, no. 102[Fi or ii = partly preserved]; Stiaffini, D., and B. Borghetti. 1994. I vetri romani del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari. Mediterraneo tardoantico e medievale, scavi e richerche 9. Orisano: Alvure., p. 140, no. 425, plate 104; Kunina, Nina. 1997. The Art Treasures of Russia: Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage/ARS Publishers., p. 275, no. 115; Arveiller-Dulong, Véronique, and Marie-Dominique Nenna. 2005. Les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre 2: Vaisselle et contenants du Ier siècle au début du VIIe siècle après J.-C. Paris: Somogy., p. 194, no. 538; Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2007. Ancient Glass in National Museums Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museums Scotland., p. 73, no. 150.
Provenance
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 162, no. 453.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 74, fig. 50a, b.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2006; 2007)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)