Condition
Intact. Remains of whitish core in the interior.
Description
Dark green, seemingly black ground; opaque white decoration. Horizontal rim-disk; short, wide cylindrical neck, tapering downward; rudimentary shoulder; straight-sided conical body; convex bottom. Two opposing lugs on shoulders; one is made by folding and flattening a dark green band four times and the other twice.
A marvered opaque white thread is wound spirally 44 times from the bottom to the rim and dragged eight times upward and downward along the body, forming a feather pattern.
Comments and Comparanda
For a discussion of early core-formed alabastra, see cat. 10. This object belongs to the third group of core-formed vessels, which appears between the second century BCE and the early first century CE; the centers of production seem to have been in Cyprus and on the Phoenician coast. The group includes different shapes of alabastra and amphoriskoi, which are similar to those of ceramic vessels manufactured at the same time (Harden, Donald B. 1981. Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. 1: Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenean Cast Objects. London: British Museum., pp. 123–141; Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., pp. 122–125). For the classification of this particular alabastron compare Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., class III:E, alabastron form III:4: p. 168, no. 165, which has a much more acute angle turning to the bottom. Cf. Fossing, Poul. 1940. Glass Vessels before Glass-Blowing. Copenhagen: Munksgaard., p. 112, fig. 84, spotted by Axel von Saldern (von Saldern, Axel. 1974. Glassammlung Hentrich. Antike und Islam. Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum., pp. 73–74, no. 191), who also notes that this vessel does not have the unusually elongated shape, but is greatly expanded below the middle of the body.
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, Axel. 1974. Glassammlung Hentrich. Antike und Islam. Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum., pp. 73–74, no. 191; p. 61, plate no. 191.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)