271. Flask with Indentations

Condition

Intact. Severely weathered and pitted, assuming an almost white color.

Description

Cut-off, vertical rim; cylindrical neck with a constriction at its base; squat globular body; fine base-ring; mildly concave bottom. Five irregular, oval, horizontal indentations are arranged at regular intervals around the body at its widest part. A slight variation in the weathering below the rim indicates the faint remains of an incised band. A wide incised band, 0.5 cm wide, is visible around the base-ring.

Comments and Comparanda

The vessel is made of decolorized glass, which was much more valuable and expensive than ordinary greenish glass. In Roman times, glass decolorized with manganese or antimony appears from the last third of the first century CE until the beginning of the fourth century, but it was most in fashion and had its highest distribution levels from the second quarter of the second to the mid-third century. It was used mainly in western Europe and mostly for tableware, although bottles and unguentaria appear among in colorless glass as well (Foy et al. 2019, vol. 1, pp. xiii–xvii; Stern 2020, pp. 769–774). This particular form appears mainly in the western provinces and might originate from the area of the Rhine. It appears in two variants (Foy et al. 2019, vol. 2, p. 249, form IN 249): one without a base, standing on its bottom (Fremersdorf and Polónyi-Fremersdorf 1984, no. 129); the second variant has a pushed-in base-ring like this vessel (Isings 1971, no. 22, plate 2; Kunina 1997, pp. 298–299, no. 223; La Baume and Salomonson 1976, p. 50, no. 142 and plate 18). Occasionally they are decorated with faint horizontal incised bands.

Provenance

1913, Private Collection [sold, Auktion: Antike und byzantinische Kleinkunst aus ausländischem und Münchener Privatbesitz Glas, Keramik, Bronzen, Arbeiten in Stein, aegyptische Kleinfunde, Galerie Helbing, Munich, October 28–30, 1913, lot 698]; 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

Galerie Helbing 1913, p. 46, no. 698, plate 30.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 216, no. 628.

Wight 2011, pp. 63, 66, fig. 42.

Exhibitions

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

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