186. Oinochoe

Condition

Intact; lightly weathered on the inside.

Description

Fire-polished, flaring rim; trefoil mouth; cylindrical neck wider toward the body; sloping shoulder; cylindrical body with a bulging overblow on the upper part. The vessel has a small applied base-ring. At the center of the bottom a pontil mark (W. 2.1 cm) is visible. A thick trail was added underneath the rim and joined in a spiral on one side. Finally, a coil handle was applied on the shoulder, drawn upward, and bent to be attached on the rim.

The glass gather was blown in a small, open mold, which shaped the lower part of the body. No signs of mold seams on the body. The area above the mold expanded beyond the edge of the mold, forming an overblow, the characteristic bulge on the shoulders that reveals the technique. The vessel was further shaped to the desired size, and then the decorative coil for the base and the handle were added, and finally the rim was formed.

Comments and Comparanda

The color of the glass and the coil under the rim are quite common in fourth-century eastern Mediterranean products. This was a period of innovation in Syro-Palestinian glass production when mold-blowing was revived and this particular shape could be included in the great diversity of individual forms in use in that region (Stern 2001, pp. 132–135, 146). It is quite close to the free-blown “Blue Zigzag Group” that comprises several similar vessels, including jugs, jars, and spouted flasks, which are made of the same greenish glass and are decorated with threads of turquoise glass wound spirally or in zigzags (Stern 1977, pp. 120–122; see also comments on cat. 298). Exact parallels form a small but tightly connected group of jugs blown in an open mold that include the following: Musée Curtius 1958, no. 126 (entire vessel made of greenish glass), a variant of the work of the same workshop should be identified in no. 125, which ends in a pointed convex bottom; Klesse and Reineking–von Bock 1973, p. 51, no. 14: entire vessel made of greenish glass; Israeli 2003, p. 177, no. 199, with turquoise handle, base, and coil; Neuburg 1949, p. 26, plate XXI:74, from Hebron, with strap handle; Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979, pp. 170–171, no. 302 = Bonhams, July 5, 2018, lot 173 https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24684/lot/173/, with turquoise handle, base, and coil; Dusenbery 1971, p. 26, fig. 46, identical but without coil base.

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. 228, no. 669.

Exhibitions

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