162. Leaf Beaker

Condition

Mended and filled. Incrustation from weathering, and iridescence.

Description

Cracked-off, vertical, slightly everted rim; cylindrical body; flat bottom. At top and bottom, two pairs of raised lines form a frieze covered with four vertical plants, each with a straight stem with nine alternating plain and decorated leaves. The stems of the plants start in the space between the bottom bands.

Each plant has two different types of lanceolate leaves. The three larger leaves of the first type have a smooth interior and an exterior band with oblique short lines, possibly imitating the undulations of a serrated edge. The fourth of these leaves, on the top right of the plant, is smaller and it has opposing paired veins branching from a central vein, ending on the exterior line (pinnate venation). The difference probably should be ascribed either to the small size of the motif that prevented the mold-maker from curving the details depicted on the larger leaves, or to the fact that it renders a feature of the actual plant—in other words, the immature leaf presents a different physiology as opposed to the mature leaves that are depicted on the lower part of the plant.

The leaves of the second type, with five on each plant, are completely smooth; the leaf on the top of the plant is squatter and in two cases is bisected by the mold seam, which makes it rounder. On the flat bottom, a central ring (W. 0.3 cm) and a wide raised concentric ring (W. 0.7 cm) at the middle (W. 3.7 cm) form a base-ring.

Comments and Comparanda

Five identical beakers have been published. One was found in Cyprus at Idalion (Froehner 1879, pp. 63, 65; Cesnola 1903, plate LXXVIII.1; Lightfoot 2017, pp. 52–53, fig. 3 upper left). The second was once kept in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum (Congrès international d’archéologie 1939, p. 70, no. 200, plate 73) and possibly was found on the Black Sea coast. The third example was allegedly from Syria, once in the Kofler-Truniger Collection (3000 Jahre Glaskunst, p. 80, no. 271). The fourth example has no known find area (Christie’s 1980, p. 21, lot 88; Galerie Günter Puhze 1982, p. 28, no. 297, illus.; Christie’s 1989, lot 37; Christie’s 1990, lot 20; Wight 2000, pp. 66–67, fig. 8). The fifth does not have a known find spot either (Israeli 2011, pp. 74–75; Christie’s 2016, no. 242, p. 37).

Karol Wight (Wight 2000, pp. 61, 64) has convincingly proposed that these plants represent almond trees and that the leaves with the exterior corrugated band could be the almond nuts in their half-open outer casings.

These beakers, based on shape and size, belong to a larger group of first-century mold-blown beakers (Harden 1935, pp. 163–186, groups E, F, Ki, L), usually decorated with inscriptions, wreaths, and palm fronds (cats. 160–161), straight plants (this vessel), or vine scrolls (cat. 163). Mold-blowing in general appeared probably already 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 must predate the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE (Scatozza Höricht 1986, p. 79, fig. 13a). An additional clue regarding a narrower 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. As to their origin, they are considered to be from the eastern Mediterranean region, (Harden 1935, pp. 180–181; Harden 1944, pp. 86–87); this hypothesis is corroborated by the find places of two of the “leaf” beakers, one in Cyprus and another probably on the Black Sea coast (Wight 2000, pp. 68–69).

Provenance

1985, Robert Haber (New York, New York), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1985

Bibliography

JPGM Acquisitions 1985, p. 195, no. 68.

Wight 2000, pp. 61–64, fig. 1a–d, 2–4.

Exhibitions

Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome (Malibu, 2007–2008; Cornin)