199. Unguentarium / Pine-Cone Flask

Condition

Fully preserved; small part of the body is missing; surface iridescent.

Description

In-folded, tubular, flaring rim; cylindrical neck with tooling marks. The body, in the shape of a pine cone, is covered with 10 rows of large hemispherical knobs imitating the scales of a pine cone. Formed in a bipartite mold; vertical seam hardly noticeable among the knobs on the surface.

Comments and Comparanda

This form of mold-blown flask rendered in the shape of a pine cone with pointed base is quite rare (Stern 1995, pp. 181–182, no. 110). The type appears in two variants: one with broken-off rim, appearing predominantly in southern and western Switzerland and northern Italy; and vessels with folded rim like this vessel, known from Crete (Carington-Smith 1982, p. 280, nos. 63–64) and other private collections (Auth 1976, p. 73, no. 73; La Baume and Salomonson 1976, p. 39, no. 79, plate 9:2).

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, pp. 172–173, no. 471.

Stern 1995, p. 181, n. 3f.

Exhibitions

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