Condition
Fully preserved; small areas of dullness and iridescence. Several visible breaks all over the vessel.
Description
Cracked-off rim; cylindrical neck, bulging toward the constriction at its base; spherical body; flat bottom. Incised and wheel-cut decoration on body. Eight slanting, elongated incisions around the shoulder area. Eight large, oval, almost circular incisions on the upper body area and six on the lower body form a wide band that is filled with two rows of rice-shaped facets arranged at interchanging heights, forming a loose faceting motif. Six slanting, elongated incisions around the bottom.
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 in colorless glass as well (Foy, Danièle, Françoise Labaune-Jean, Caroline Leblond, Chantal Martin Pruvot, Marie-Thérèse Marty, Claire Massart, Claudine Munier, Laudine Robin, Janick Roussel-Ode, and Bernard Gratuze. 2019. Verres incolores de l’antiquité́ romaine en Gaule et aux marges de la Gaule. Archaeopress Roman archaeology 42. Oxford: Archaeopress., vol. 1, pp. xiii–xvii; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2020. “A Major Work on Colourless Glass in Roman Gaul.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 33: 769–774., pp. 769–774). This particular flask form appears in the western provinces, on the Black Sea coast, and in Asia Minor, produced in several centers during the third and fourth centuries CE (Foy, Danièle, Françoise Labaune-Jean, Caroline Leblond, Chantal Martin Pruvot, Marie-Thérèse Marty, Claire Massart, Claudine Munier, Laudine Robin, Janick Roussel-Ode, and Bernard Gratuze. 2019. Verres incolores de l’antiquité́ romaine en Gaule et aux marges de la Gaule. Archaeopress Roman archaeology 42. Oxford: Archaeopress., vol. 2. pp. 250–252, form IN 250; Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., pp. 121–122, form 103; Fünfschilling, Sylvia. 2015. Die römischen Gläser aus Augst und Kaiseraugst. Kommentierter Formenkatalog und ausgewählte Neufunde 1981–2010 aus Augusta Raurica. Forschungen in Augst 51. Augst: Augusta Raurica., pp. 422–423, form AR 154.1; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2009. Ρωμαϊκή και παλαιοχριστιανική υαλουργία: 1ος αι. π.Χ.\–6ος αι. μ.Χ.: Παραγωγή και προϊόντα: Τα αγγεία από τη Θεσσαλονίκη και την περιοχή της. Athens: Sideris., pp. 190–92, form 50).
Provenance
By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004.
Bibliography
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 185, no. 514.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)