216. Oinochoe / Ribbed Bottle with One Handle

Condition

Fully preserved; some iridescence on the inside as well as dark accretions and discoloration; few pinprick bubbles and no impurities. A small fill has been added on the rim.

Description

Neck and body blown in a two-part mold of two vertical sections. Edges of mold not very carefully aligned. One continuous mold seam around body and base extends onto either side of neck and follows the line of vertical ribs on body. In-folded, tubular, slightly flaring rim; cylindrical neck; the spherical body is covered by 17 vertical ribs and stands on a flat bottom. An opaque white bifurcated strap handle has been applied on the shoulder and drawn up to the lip, with projecting thumb-rest tab above. Handle placed so that it is not adjacent to the seam. An opaque red striation runs along the interior surface of the handle, and some black inclusions are visible in it as well.

Comments and Comparanda

There are several published melon-shaped jugs with vertical ribbing that belong to various molds, and those with firm archaeological data are dated to the second half of the first century CE. This form was circulating around the Black Sea coast and in the eastern Mediterranean, where it apparently was made, and it has not been identified in western sites (Stern 1995, pp. 149–150). For direct parallels, see Arakelian, Tiratzian, and Khachatrian 1969, pp. 57–58, nos. 116, 118; Kunina 1973, pp. 123–124, fig. 18 = Kunina 1997, p. 280, no. 139; Stern 1995, pp. 149–151, nos. 50–51.

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. 427.

Stern 1995, p. 149, n. 2.

Exhibitions

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