Condition
Complete; iridescent surface.
Description
In-folded, tubular rim; flaring mouth; short, cylindrical neck, strongly constricted at its base; spherical body; flat base. At the center of the bottom is the straight mold seam. On the body are five mold-blown rows consisting of eight squares each. At the center of each square there is a boss. Irregularities on the pattern are visible.
Comments and Comparanda
Vessels with a diaphragm formed at the bottom of the neck are known as sprinklers or dropper flasks due to the fact that the diaphragm allowed only individual drops of the fluid content to flow through it. In addition to flasks, jars and amphoriskoi were occasionally finished as sprinklers. They are often decorated with mold-blown and cut motifs, pinched fins, and applied trails, and they mostly appear in the Levant, Syria, eastern Palestine, and Mesopotamia, indicating a production site in the region, although a workshop seems to have been operating in Cologne too—one that specialized in snake-thread decoration. Sprinklers appeared in the third century CE and continued in the fourth and probably into the early fifth century CE (Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., pp. 152–153; on other sprinklers, see Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., pp. 91–93, nos. 106–110, esp. pp. 109–110, no. 108, wherein further bibliography). Direct parallels include the following: Auth, Susan Handler. 1976. Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum from the Eugene Schaefer Collection of Antiquities. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum., p. 78, no. 281; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., p. 246, no. 132; Hayes, John W. 1975. Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum., p. 78, no. 281, plate 7, Royal Ontario Museum, 950.157.185 https://collections.rom.on.ca/objects/522258. See also the comparanda for cat. 203.
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 175, no. 483.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome (Malibu, 2007–2008; Corning, 2008)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)