163. Beaker

Condition

Intact; minor chipping on the rim; areas covered with iridescence and whitish incrustation.

Description

Cut-off, vertical rim on a mildly overblown, cylindrical body; flat bottom. The body is covered by a scrolling grapevine of six oval tendrils, alternately filled with a trefoil leaf or a cluster consisting of 18 and 19 berries arranged in six rows. Two vine leaves and one bunch are depicted on one of the mold parts and on the second part two bunches and one leaf. The upper and lower parts of the body are encircled by a palm frond, the upper pointing leftward, the lower rightward. The seam between the two vertical sections of the mold is not concealed. One raised ring at the middle of the bottom forms a base-ring.

Comments and Comparanda

The exact decoration appears to be quite rare: one beaker from Cyprus is long known (Froehner 1879, p. 65 n. 2, 79 n. 11, 120, 139, plate XXVII.112; Cesnola 1903, vol. 3, plate LXXVIII.2; Lightfoot 2017, pp. 14, 53, fig. 3 upper right). Another beaker from a controlled excavation, namely from a grave in ed-Dur (Whitehouse 1998a, title page and fig. 12, plate 15, no. 116), is dated to the first century CE. Another example appeared in 1970 (JGS 1970, p. 171, no. 5 Milo Cripps collection). Another, squatter cup where the scroll is not framed with palm fronds appeared in the Cinzano Collection (Lazarus 1974, no. 6). Furthermore, the same scroll appears on three “harvest” beakers with convex sides (3000 Jahre Glaskunst, p. 81, no. 272; Benzian 1994, p. 80, lot 139 = ex Constable-Maxwell Collection 1979, Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979, p. 168, lot 301; Bonhams, July 14, 2004, lot 15 [= ex Constable-Maxwell Collection, London, ex British Rail Pension Fund Collection, London]). Finally, on identical cylindrical cups two similar friezes of wine scrolls bordered by double lines appear on vessels dated to the first century CE (Israeli 2011, pp. 70–73).

This beaker, based on its shape and size, belongs 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), unbending plants (cat. 162), and vine scrolls (cat. 163). Mold-blowing in general had probably already appeared by the first decade of the first century CE (Stern 1995, pp. 65–66; Lightfoot et al. 2014, p. 26) and seems to die out by the end of the century (Price 1991, p. 74). There is a known example from Pompeii that obviously predates the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE (Scatozza Höricht 1986, p. 79, fig. 13a). An additional clue regarding a narrower date for these 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

By 1966–1988, 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

JGS 1966, pp. 128–129, no. 5.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 162, no. 452.

Exhibitions

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

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