272. Flask

Condition

Fully preserved; small dull and iridescent areas.

Description

Cut-off, vertical rim; cylindrical neck with a constriction at its base; squat body; fine, pinched base-ring; flat bottom. Bears faint incised decoration. A fine horizontal band around the rim, one 0.5 cm below it, two more at mid-neck height; three concentric bands (W. 0.2, 1, 0.5 cm, respectively) on the upper body, and one more (W. 0.2 cm) on the lower body.

Comments and Comparanda

This form is very close to a widely distributed spherical flask form (cat. 273) (Isings 1957, pp. 121–122, form 103; Antonaras 2009, pp. 190–92, form 50) regarding the shaping of the rim and neck; their main difference is that the originally spherical body was flattened into a lentoid shape with this vessel. In addition to the fine incising, some examples are decorated with indentations around the body, also known in decolorized glass (Foy et al. 2019, vol. 2, p. 249, IN 249). Examples with a pushed-in base-ring, like this vessel, and others without a base are known, and they are made of either greenish or decolorized glass (Fremersdorf and Polónyi-Fremersdorf 1984, p. 53, no. 129 [example without base]; Doppelfeld 1966, p. 52, plates 98–99 [four examples with pushed-in base-ring]; Kunina 1997, pp. 298–299, no. 223 [example with pushed-in base-ring]). They are dated to the third century CE, and it has been assumed that they are products of the Rhine region.

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 et al. 1974, p. 208, no. 587.

Exhibitions

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

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