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Catalogue

192. Hexagonal Bottle with High-Relief Vessels / Flask

Accession Number 2003.299
Dimensions H. 8.5, Diam. rim 1.8, Diam. base 1.9 cm; Wt. 26.13 g
Date First half of the first century CE
Production Area Phoenician region
Material Translucent blue glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Body mold-blown in a four-part mold of three vertical sections joined to a disk-shaped base section; mold seams between panels 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6 and 1; free-blown and tooled neck and rim
View in Collection

Condition

Intact. Some incrustation on the interior and small areas of the exterior.

Description

Flaring, in-folded tubular rim; long cylindrical neck mildly constricted toward the body; hexagonal body; low base on flat, mildly concave bottom with three straight mold seams that meet at the center.

On the shoulder, six pointed arches, each containing an unidentified large, egg-shaped object. On the body, six rectangular panels divided by columns, each with an abacus and torus capital, smooth shaft, and high double torus base. In the panels appear six vessels from left to right:

[Seam, concealed in the bunch of fruit and the shaft of the column]

  1. Oinochoe, a spouted jug with handle to the right.

  2. Krater, a footed bowl with tall cylindrical neck with vertical grooves, oblate body, and tall crooked stem, the mouth with two rows of rounded objects.

[Seam, concealed in the bunch of fruit and the shaft of the column]

  1. Amphora, a footed wide-mouthed vessel with two vertical handles on the shoulder. If not an amphora, probably a hydria, with the third handle turned to the back.

  2. Krater, a footed bowl with wide opening and two curving handles from shoulder to rim, the opening containing three rows of rounded objects, probably fruits.

[Seam, concealed in the bunch of fruits and the shaft of the column]

  1. Oinochoe, a footed jug with a round mouth and high handle to the right.

  2. Amphora, a second footed wide-mouthed vessel, as in panel 3.

Around the bottom, fillets suspended from the center of one panel to the center of the adjacent panel, with alternating large and small fruits with knobbed surfaces below each column, the larger ones on the seams and covering the fillet.

Comments and Comparanda

See cat. 190.

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

, p. 142, no. 404.

, pp. 75, 81, fig. 51.

Exhibitions

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

Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples (Los Angeles, 2009)

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