Condition
Intact; iridescent layer of weathering on the inside.
Description
Fire-polished, rounded, flaring rim; conical mouth; cylindrical neck, widening toward the body; conical body with rounded carination that curves in toward the tubular, folded base-ring. A fine thread of greenish glass is wound spirally five times on the lower part of the neck. A circular scar (W. 0.9 cm) of a solid pontil is visible on the center of the bottom.
Comments and Comparanda
Flasks with similar carinated bodies are known in variants, usually standing on a base-ring and very often decorated with a simple, fine thread wound around the neck. At least some of them are considered products of Cyprus (Vessberg, Olof. 1952. “Roman Glass in Cyprus.” Opuscula Archaeologica 7: 109–165., p. 135, flask type B.I, plate VIII:1–2), and they are found mainly in eastern Mediterranean sites, dated to the second–third centuries CE (Hayes, John W. 1975. Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum., p. 67, no. 201, fig. 6, plate 15, without base-ring; Spartz, Edith. 1967. Antike Gläser. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel. Kassel: Bärenreiter., nos. 85–86, plate 19; Auth, Susan Handler. 1976. Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum from the Eugene Schaefer Collection of Antiquities. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum., p. 124, no. 154; Kunina, Nina. 1997. The Art Treasures of Russia: Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage/ARS Publishers., p. 299, no. 224; Whitehouse, David B. 2001. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., p. 166, no. 695; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., pp. 148, 212–213, no. 102, without base; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 173, no. 226).
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. 225, no. 660.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)