30. Alabastron

Condition

Intact.

Description

Flaring, fire-polished rim; elongated conical body; convex bottom. The interior is smooth, covered in areas by a layer of whitish incrustation.

Comments and Comparanda

On core-formed alabastra of this period, see comments on cat. 29. The alabastron probably belongs to the fashion of archaizing vases that were imitating archaic prototypes. In this case, for the prototype of the shape of the body, see a clay alabastron from Kamiros, dated between 610–550 BCE, kept in the British Museum, 1860,0404.49: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1860-0404-49. The production technique indicates a much later date, and the object is made of the exact same glass as the jug, cat. 289, and the patella, cat. 77. See also the comments of Axel von Saldern corroborating this dating and ascribing it to the early imperial colored glass vessels (von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 112, no. 300).

Provenance

By 1901, Louis de Clercq, French, 1836–1901 (Paris, France); by 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004

Bibliography

de Ridder 1909, no. 581, plate 31.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 112, no. 300.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

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