17. Alabastron

Condition

Fully preserved; mostly covered with weathering, and now appears white.

Description

Translucent dark, probably purple body; opaque white and yellow decoration. Horizontal rim-disk; short, cylindrical neck, tapering toward the body; rudimentary shoulder; cylindrical body, curving in toward the flat bottom. Two opposing ring handles with knobbed tails on the shoulders.

An unmarvered thread, probably yellow but now gray due to weathering, is wound around the rim. One white and one yellow thread—both marvered—are spirally wound 18 times around the neck and body, dragged up and down, forming a zigzag pattern.

Comments and Comparanda

On core-formed alabastra, see comments on cat. 10. For the classification of this particular alabastron, see Grose 1989, class I:F, alabastron form I:3A: p. 141, no. 88; also very similar but taller are the examples of form I:3B: pp. 140–142, nos. 81, 85–87, 89–91.

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 1974, p. 67, no. 164; p. 69, plate no. 164.

Exhibitions

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

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