286. Bird-Shaped Flask

Condition

Broken and mended in different places. Some weathering has produced iridescence, with incrustation around the outside of the mouth; several pinprick bubbles. Rim is reconstructed by some resin.

Description

Cylindrical neck; bird-shaped body. The pressing marks of the pucellas used to shape the vessel are visible on the tip of the tail. Originally blown as a globular flask, it was manipulated while still hot and malleable to produce the desired shape.

Comments and Comparanda

Very similar to baby feeders (guti) (see cat. 285), except for the sealed end in this flask type. This is a small and simplified version—with its simple, pinched bottom—of a relatively well-known form of askos (a wineskin in ancient Greek, that is, a container for wine made of animal skin) (see comments on cat. 287). Several parallels for this particular form of flask with trefoil rim are known (Froehner 1903, no. 813, p. 117, plate 128.1 [now Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.194.134: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/249378]; Dusenbery 1971, p. 17, no. 19; Canav 1985, p. 39, no. 24; 3000 Jahre Glaskunst, no. 203; Whitehouse 2001a, pp. 121–122, nos. 188–189).

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. 205, no. 575.

Exhibitions

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