264. Goblet-Stemmed Beaker

Condition

Fully preserved; mended from fragments; iridescence and in some areas incrustation on the exterior; few pinprick bubbles.

Description

Fire-polished, slightly flaring rim; long, conical body, curving and sloping toward the bottom. The body is standing, slightly off-center, on a low, cylindrical stem; conical, slightly deformed, pushed-in base, forming a disk foot. Faint pontil mark (W. approx. 0.8 cm) is visible on the undersurface of the base.

Comments and Comparanda

Free-blown stemmed goblets appear from the first century CE, with several fine, ornate examples extant (Isings 1957, pp. 50–52, 56, forms 36, 40). Stemmed beakers were reintroduced in the Early Byzantine period (fifth–seventh centuries), probably sometime in the fifth century; these were simple utilitarian vessels, mostly undecorated, used as drinking vessels and lamps (Isings 1957, pp. 139–140, form 111; Antonaras 2009, pp. 162–167, form 35 = Antonaras 2017, pp. 82–83). Stemmed beakers are the most widespread form of glass vessel in the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea region from the fifth century and at least until the seventh century CE (Barag 1970a, vol. 2, plate 33, type V:9; Dussart 1998, pp. 115–120, type B.IX.1, plates 27–28; Stern 2001, pp. 310–311, nos. 173–174; Israeli 2003, p. 198, no. 237; Antonaras 2012, p. 139, nos. 192–193). The broad distribution and the variations in the shape of the body and the base indicate that stemmed beakers were produced in many places (Foy 1995, pp. 208–209, form 23a; Sternini 1995, p. 257; Antonaras 2010b; Antonaras 2014a). It seems that their production underwent a great expansion when glassblowers devised a method to form the entire vessel from a single mass of glass (Stern 2001, pp. 270–271; Weinberg and Stern 2009, pp. 148–149). The lower part of the paraison was folded in and squeezed to form the base and the stem quite quickly (Antonaras 2009, pp. 162–167, form 35 = Antonaras 2017, pp. 82–83). This new technique required much less glass than the earlier technique, in which the bowl and the base of the vessel were made from two different paraisons (Antonaras 2009, pp. 165–166, form 37 = Antonaras 2017, pp. 85–87). Stemmed beakers are found in great numbers in the excavations of churches, where they were apparently used chiefly as lamps (Antonaras 2007, pp. 51–54; Antonaras 2014b, pp. 100–101, 103).

Provenance

Robert Forrer, Swiss, 1866–1947 (Strasburg, Germany); 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. 240, no. 705.

Exhibitions

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