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278. Hippopotamus-Shaped Flask

Accession Number 2003.440
Dimensions H. 14.5, Diam. rim 5.3, max. Diam. 4.2 cm; Wt. 145.82 g
Date Third–fourth centuries CE
Production Area Eastern Mediterranean, probably Syria
Material Translucent dark green, yellow, and blue glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Free-blown; applied elements
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Condition

Some discoloration (silver on the exterior, black incrustation covering underlying silver weathering on the interior, particularly on areas around the inside of the mouth and neck). The upper lip of the animal is missing. One of the rear legs is probably missing, and the cavity has been filled with yellow glass very similar to the original. Small chip is missing from the rim.

Description

Fire-polished, flaring rim with a cutout fold under the lip, imitating an applied coil. Wide, cylindrical neck, at the bottom of which is a constriction that forms a diaphragm. The body has the shape of a hippopotamus. The wide mouth of the vessel extends from the tail end of the animal. The body is constructed of two bulbous shapes: one for the head and one for the body. A thick coil is wound around the head in front of the ears, framing the face of the animal. The head narrows and ends in a pinched, wide-open mouth. Each leg is formed with a blob of glass that was attached to the body and then squeezed and bent with pincers to form the foot. Each eye was formed by a lump of blue glass, which was twisted to be cut, and the revolution of the glass is visible. The ears are formed by blue lumps attached on the surface and then squeezed to flatten them and achieve their slightly elongated, semicircular shape. A striation in the glass on one side of the body shows the way the vessel was manipulated by the glassblower. The originally round, or rather ovular, body was squeezed toward its lower part, thus being transformed into two oblong, barrel-shaped parts, which represent the body and the head of the animal.

The vessel is made of a very thick mass of translucent, dark greenish glass. Features are applied: the front feet and a coil encircling the face are in the same-colored glass; the back feet are made of yellow glass; the eyes and ears are of dark blue glass.

Comments and Comparanda

On sprinkler flasks and their production predominantly in Syria from the third century CE, mainly in the fourth, and probably even into the early fifth century CE, see comments on cat. 223. For a somewhat similar, mouse-like flask, see cat. 277, also dated to the third–fourth centuries CE.

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

, p. 238, no. 699.

Exhibitions

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