309. Jar

Condition

Fully preserved; a chip missing from the rim. Mostly covered by yellowish iridescence and opaque whitish weathering.

Description

In-folded, flaring rim; short, wide, cylindrical neck; globular body, standing on three pinched toes. Two handles are applied around the neck. Each handle starts from the neck, forming a tiny thumb rest on the top, and stretches, forming a fine curve that ends on the upper body. A fine thread starting on the shoulder is wound seven times around the shoulders and the lower part of the neck. No pontil mark visible on the bottom.

Comments and Comparanda

Flasks with three feet with flat, band-like pinched toes are well-known from the first century (considered to be Italian products: see Stern 1977, pp. 53–54, no. 13; De Tommaso 1990, p. 54, type 25; Lightfoot 2017, p. 188, no. 229). Simpler pinched toes are known from the second–third centuries CE (Antonaras 2012, p. 213, no. 320). A fourth-century amphoriskos with identical toes is in the collection of the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam (no. 6069).

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. 209, no. 595.

Exhibitions

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