274. Flask

Condition

Intact; dull in the interior.

Description

Fire-polished, flaring rim; cylindrical neck wider toward the body. Flat shoulder; bulbous body, standing on a flat, slightly concave bottom. An annular pontil mark (W. 1.5, Th. 0.2 cm) is visible at the center of the bottom.

The vessel has engraved decoration: an inscription written in double-lined capital Greek letters, ΥΓΙΑ Hygia (“Health”); five slanting, parallel strokes cover the area between the last and the first letter of the word. In addition, the area above the inscription is covered with slanting strokes.

Comments and Comparanda

This flask belongs to a quite diverse group of vessels, which include several different shapes—beakers, shallow bowls or dishes, globular flasks or bottles, and one jug—that were decorated with incised decoration and inscriptions with double-line lettering. Finds are dated between the third and fifth centuries CE, mostly to the fourth century. The finds are widely distributed, and it has been proposed that they were produced in a number of dispersed workshops, predominantly in the eastern Mediterranean, namely, goblets in Egypt, and flasks and bowls in western Asia Minor, but also probably Cologne (Fremersdorf 1967, pp. 105–108, plates 104–109; Harden 1967/8, pp. 43–55; Grose 1985, pp. 23–28; Stern 2001, pp. 137–138, 160–161; Lightfoot 2013b, pp. 358–362; Hill and Nenna 2003, p. 90, fig. 4:1, 2; Keller 2006, pp. 118, 211–212, plate 12). For a dish decorated with a double-line inscription, see cat. 232.

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, pp. 190–191, no. 521.

Exhibitions

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