228. Flask

Condition

Covered with iridescence and milky white crust.

Description

In-folded, flaring, tubular rim; conical mouth constricted at its base, almost forming a diaphragm; skewed oblong, almost cylindrical body, wider toward the bottom, ending in a solid tubular toe with a globular finial. A pair of coil handles have been applied on the shoulders and drawn up to the rim. The mouth is free-blown and smooth; the body is dip mold–blown and decorated with 20 ribs, vertical at the top and on the toe, and S-shaped along the body. Mark of a solid pontil (W. 1 cm) is visible on the bottom.

Comments and Comparanda

No direct comparanda have been found, but this flask can be connected to the free-blown tubular jars produced in the Syro-Palestinian region between the fourth and fifth centuries (Stern 2001, pp. 255–257, nos. 141–143), and the double kohl tubes from Palestine of the late fourth to the sixth centuries (Barag 1970a, vol. 2, plate 39, type 12; Stern 2001, pp. 317–320, nos. 179–182); both groups were decorated with spirally wound fine trails, in a fashion quite similar to the effect of the oblique mold-blown ribbing on this vessel. Furthermore, the vessel can also be associated with the conical flasks with similar handles from Palestine (Barag 1970a, vol. 2, plate 37, type 10:4-1, 511).

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. 180, no. 497.

Exhibitions

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