279. Flask

Condition

Mended; fully preserved. Weathering has given it a blue-purple iridescence; incrustation occurs on the inside and under the foot.

Description

Fire-polished, flaring rim; short neck; hemispherical body that folds, forming a very high, domed bottom. This type of bottom reduces the capacity of the flask to a mere fraction of what it externally appears to contain. It has been previously interpreted as a stemmed beaker, but the fact that the rim remains open and fully usable indicates that the vessel actually was shaped and finished as a flask. No pontil mark on the bottom, but also no constriction on the base of the neck.

Comments and Comparanda

This vessel, with its minuscule capacity and ability to stand on either end, can be regarded as a trinket or trick vessel. A well-dated example from Slovenia dates the form to the second half of the first century CE (Lazar 2003, 3.7.3, fig. 33, pp. 103, 108, from a Flavian-era grave), as does another, contemporaneous one from the ancient necropolis of Zadar in Croatia (Eterović Borzić and Štefanac 2021, p. 447, no. 1442). Other published examples are from the Newark Museum (Auth 1976, p. 91, no. 98, dated to the first–second centuries CE) and the Royal Ontario Museum (Hayes 1975, p. 53, no. 117, plate 8, dated to probably the second or early third century CE). Finally, a vessel similar in concept has been interpreted as a goblet tentatively dated to the fourth–sixth centuries, although an earlier or later date was not excluded; it belongs to the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse 1997a, p. 106, no. 159).

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. 241, no. 708.

Exhibitions

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