24. Alabastron

Condition

Almost fully preserved. Mended, especially around the neck. A small hole on one side of the neck. Around the lower part of the neck, three small disks of blue glass have been pushed into the mass of the vase, reinforcing the join between the neck and the body, where large air bubbles are visible in X-ray images, as well as around the bottom. There is an oval depression next to one of the lugs, probably the scar of an unsuccessful attempt to attach a lug there. Tooling marks on the underside of the rim and the neck.

Description

Translucent dark blue body; opaque yellow and white decoration. Broad, horizontal rim-disk; wide, cylindrical neck; rudimentary shoulder; cylindrical body; flat bottom. Two opposing horizontal lugs below the shoulder.

A thick unmarvered white thread is wound around the rim. This thread has a very thin yellow layer on the side attached to the rim, and in one part there are some remains of a dark blue thread. On the upper part of the body, a yellowish-white thread—like the one around the rim—and a white thread are each wound once and marvered. Below these a white and a yellow thread—both marvered—are spirally wound 17 times to the bottom and dragged 18 times upward and downward, forming a zigzag pattern. It is quite probable that all threads consist of a white and a yellow layer, which, depending on the way it was applied on the vessel, appear either white or yellow.

Comments and Comparanda

On core-formed alabastra of this period, see comments on cat. 22. For the classification of this particular alabastron, see Grose 1989, class III:A or B, alabastron form III:1. This example does not fit exactly in either group A or B. Although the thread around the rim is unmarvered, the neck and the upper body are not decorated; the long neck, the cylindrical body, the handles in the form of lugs, and their position near the shoulder lead us to ascribe it to this form. For a comparable find from Macedonia, cf. Adam-Veleni and Ignatiadou 2010, pp. 336–337, nos. 345–346, dated to the last quarter of the fourth century BCE.

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 1974, p. 73, no. 187; p. 57, plate no. 187.

Exhibitions

Art of Alchemy (Los Angeles, 2016–2017)

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

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