210. Amphoriskos

Condition

Intact.

Description

In-folded, flattened, flaring, tubular rim; short, cylindrical neck; elongated oval, pointed body. The body of the vessel is purple, with the exception of a part of the rim and neck, which are made of greenish glass, possibly because a small layer of greenish glass was accidentally left on the tip of the blowpipe. The body was rolled on white blobs of glass before its insertion in the mold and the formation of 20 horizontal, mold-blown ridges from neck to base. Two blue strap handles are applied on the shoulder, drawn up and out to attach the rim, and the end of the band was folded back. The upper part of the mold seams are partly covered by the handles.

Comments and Comparanda

Several mold-blown miniature glass amphorae exist, all of them dated to the second half of the first century CE. They imitate three different forms of contemporaneous clay amphorae. The first variant, to which cat. 211 belongs, has a tall slender body; the second, to which this vessel belongs, has an ovoid body that turns abruptly inward, to a pointed end; and the third has a conical body with a circular flat base. There are several variations of these three basic forms, indicating that this popular shape was produced in a number of workshops in the eastern Mediterranean and possibly in the west as well (Stern 1995, pp. 157–159, nos. 64–67). For further parallels, see Clairmont 1963, pp. 40–41, no. 154; Arakelian, Tiratzian, and Khachatrian 1969, p. 58, nos. 119–120; Cermanović-Kuzmanović 1974, pp. 186, 188, plates 1:4, 3:16; Mikulčić 1974, pp. 200–201, 206, plate 4, no. 382; Hayes 1975, p. 48, no. 85; Auth 1976, p. 71, no. 69; De Tommaso 1990, p. 51, type 20; Ravagnan 1994, p. 34, nos. 26–27; Stern 1995, pp. 157–159, nos. 64–67; Israeli 2003, p. 139, no. 147; Whitehouse 2001a, pp. 46–47, no. 518; Mandruzzato and Marcante 2007, pp. 39, 59, no. 19 (splashware); Antonaras 2012, pp. 79–80, nos. 83–85.

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. 147, no. 423.

Stern 1995, p. 159, n. 1e–h.

Exhibitions

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

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