Condition
Intact. Small areas with milky crust; some impurities; few pinprick bubbles and several, larger, elongated air bubbles, particularly visible on the neck area.
Description
Fire-polished, slightly flaring rim; cylindrical neck; horizontal shoulder; truncated, conical body; pointed, convex bottom. Pair of peacock blue, angular, coil handles from shoulder to mid-neck. Peacock blue coil wound once around neck at level of handles’ attachment—apparently placed before the handles were attached. At the center of the bottom is an annular pontil mark (W. 1.5, Th. 0.1 cm).
Comments and Comparanda
Small glass amphorae rendering in miniature the shape of large clay amphorae were quite popular and were used as tableware for serving wine. This vessel belongs to a distinctive group of Syro-Palestinian glass table amphorae, appearing in four different types, which have been dated to the fourth and fifth centuries CE (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1977. Ancient Glass at the Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt) Paris. Archaeologia Traiectina 12. Groningen: Wolfers-Noordhoff., pp. 84–85). This particular vessel, due to its tall, tubular neck that is not constricted at its base, is ascribed to type I or II. The slightly flaring rim led us to ascribe it to the rarer type II. In particular, on the basis of its long conical body, the absence of a base, and the presence of a decorative coil halfway down neck, it is ascribed to type IIA2a (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1977. Ancient Glass at the Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt) Paris. Archaeologia Traiectina 12. Groningen: Wolfers-Noordhoff., pp. 84–85). The findspots indicate that these vessels may have been produced in Syria, possibly in the fourth century CE (Hayes, John W. 1975. Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum., p. 110, no. 411, plate 25; Stern, Eva Marianne. 1977. Ancient Glass at the Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt) Paris. Archaeologia Traiectina 12. Groningen: Wolfers-Noordhoff., pp. 84–85, type IIA2a; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., no. 98, p. 208; Barag, Dan. 1970. “Glass Vessels of the Roman and Byzantine Periods in Palestine.” PhD diss. [in Hebrew], Hebrew University, Jerusalem., vol. 2, plate 37, type 10.2; Dekoulakou, Ifigenia. 1976. “Πάτρα, οδός Ασημάκη Φωτήλα.” Archaiologikon Deltion 31 (Chronika B1): 103–104., p. 103, plate 81:β, γ; Papageorgiou, Metaxia. 2014. “Αρχαιολογική και αρχαιομετρική ανάλυση υάλινων αντικειμένων της Ύστερης Αρχαιότητας από την δυτική Πελοπόννησο.” PhD diss., National and Kapodistrian University of Athens., p. 447, no. 130; cf. Matheson, Susan B. 1980. Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery., pp. 86–87, no. 234; Weinberg, Gladys D., and Eva Marianne Stern. 2009. Vessel Glass. Athenian Agora XXXIV. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens., pp. 150–151, no. 356; Williams, Charles K., and Orestes H. Zervos. 1983. “Corinth, 1982: East of the Theater.” Hesperia 52: 1–47., p. 24, no. 64, plate 10; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2022. East of the Theater: Glassware and Glass Production. Corinth XIX.1. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens., pp. 67–68, 118, nos. 431–432).
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 214, no. 618.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)