215. Lenticular Amphoriskos

Condition

Intact; iridescence and pitting.

Description

In-folded, flaring rim; short, cylindrical neck; lentoid body; small, flat, rectangular base. Two bluish coil handles are applied on the shoulder, drawn upward, and attached to the underside of the rim and top of neck. Handles positioned over mold seams. Raised, mold-blown decoration on each side of the body, consisting of a large, six-petaled rosette surrounded by a wide band filled with a continuous scrolled tendril. At the meeting point of the two halves there is a wide, slightly convex band with a central rib that conceals the seam, bordered by two raised ridges, and stops at the border of the rectangular bottom.

Comments and Comparanda

Mold-blown lenticular flasks decorated with a rosette at the center of each side are known in four variants. They are mostly decorated with six-petaled rosettes, one with a seven-petaled rosette, and one with a five-petaled rosette. The distribution of the parallels, which were unearthed in the eastern Mediterranean, indicates that the production site of these flasks was also situated in that region dated to the first century CE (Stern 1995, pp. 154–156, nos. 60–61; Stern 2001, pp. 52–53). For parallels, see Saginašvili 1970, pp. 51, 96, no. 10; Israeli 1964, p. 41, no. 10, fig. 15; von Saldern 1968, no. 32; Dusenbery 1971, p. 13, no. 10, fig. 7; Platz-Horster 1976, p. 40, no. 58; Auth 1976, p. 70, no. 67; La Baume and Salomonson 1976, p. 36, no. 64; von Saldern 1980b, p. 50, no. 43; 3000 Jahre Glaskunst, p. 79, no. 263; British Museum, 1868,0501.187 = Nesbitt 1871, p. 31, no. 187, fig. 44: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1868–0501-187; Whitehouse 2001a, pp. 43–44, no. 514. Examples with five-petaled rosettes: Stern 2001, no. 49; Israeli 2003, p. 137, no. 142. Examples with seven-petaled rosettes: Ravagnan 1994, p. 33, no. 23.

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. 154, no. 436.

Stern 1995, p. 155, n. 2k.

Wight 2011, pp. 76, 84, fig. 54.

Exhibitions

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

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