213. Basket Amphoriskos

Condition

Intact; iridescence and pitting.

Description

Flaring, in-folded, partly flattened rim; lopsided ovular body, wider at the points where the handles were applied; short conical neck or mouth; ovoid body; flat base. Two coil handles are applied to the underside of the rim, drawn down to the shoulder, and cut off, left floating, not attached to the body. Handles are positioned over the mold seam. Vessel is shaped like a miniature amphora encased in a wicker basket. The mold ended at the beginning of the neck. The vertical seam between the two parts of the mold is not visible along the body but is clearly visible along the center of the bottom.

Comments and Comparanda

It should be noted that the lower end of the handle is cut off, but it is not pressed into a disk as is the case in other products of this workshop, the Workshop of the Floating Handles (e.g., Stern 1995, p. 154, no. 59). For the form and the workshop, see comments on cat. 212. For this particular shape, see Israeli 1964, p. 39; Stern 1995, p. 154, no. 59, n. 3a; Mandruzzato and Marcante 2007, p. 58, no. 18 = Calvi 1968, p. 105, no. 248, plate 16:3; V&A nos. 1033–1868: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O48/toilet-flask-unguentarium/; Israeli 2011, p. 84; Christie’s 2016, p. 28, no. 237.

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. 150, no. 432, 155 ill.

Stern 1995, p. 88, n. 151, p. 154, n. 3a.

Exhibitions

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