Condition
Fully preserved; mended; missing a fragment from the rim.
Description
Cut-off rim; conical body with convex walls mildly tapering toward the rim and the flat, slightly concave bottom. A faint, annular pontil scar preserved on the bottom (W. approx. 1 cm). Three bands (W. 0.5 cm) of fine horizontal incisions divide the surface of the vessel into three registers, roughly equal in height.
Comments and Comparanda
This beaker belongs to a well-known first-century CE form with ground rim and cylindrical, ovoid, and truncated conical body (Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., p. 44, form 29; Rütti, Beat. 1991. Die römischen Gläser aus Augst und Kaiseraugst. Augst: Römermuseum., form AR 35; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., pp. 46, 77, no. 19; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2017. Glassware and Glassworking in Thessaloniki: First Century BC–Sixth Century AD. Oxford: Archaeopress., p. 74, form 25). The form appears in the Augustan period (27 BCE–14 CE), but the majority of the extant examples date to the reign of Tiberius or Claudius (14–54 CE), and they continue to be produced into the third quarter of the first century (Cool, Hillary E. M., and Jennifer Price. 1995. Roman Vessel Glass from Excavations in Colchester, 1971–85. Colchester Archaeological Report 8. Colchester: Colchester Archaeological Trust., pp. 68–69; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., pp. 46, 79–80). It seems that this form imitates fine eggshell pottery vessels produced in Italy and the northwestern provinces as early as the second quarter of the first century BCE (Robinson, Henry S. 1959. Pottery of the Roman Period: Chronology. Athenian Agora V. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens., pp. 11–13, nos. F18, F19, plate 1, group F).
Provenance
1971, Royal Athena Galleries (New York, New York), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1971
Bibliography
Unpublished
Exhibitions
None