316. Double-Handled Jar

Condition

Part of the rim has been replaced with resin. Most of the surface is weathered, giving the vessel iridescence and an opaque, whitish layer.

Description

Fire-polished, flaring almost horizontal rim; wide, cylindrical neck; globular body, standing on a conical, pushed-in base. Two tiny ring handles are applied on the shoulder, stretched upward, forming a curve and folded over upon themselves; one is made of turquoise glass. A turquoise thread is applied to the underside of the rim so that it can be seen through the colorless glass of the rim. At the center of the bottom there is an annular pontil scar (W. 1.5, Th. 0.2 cm).

Comments and Comparanda

This jar is quite unusual in the shape and size of its two handles. Early Imperial jars are almost always handleless and without a base (see Isings 1957, pp. 81–88, forms 63–68; Antonaras 2017, pp. 131–136, forms 98–110; and comments on cat. 308). The majority of Late Roman jars lack handles as well, and those that do have them have thick, large handles, often several of them around the neck (see comments on cats. 311–312, cats. 314–315). Small ring handles, almost always three in number, are known on bowl lamps from the fifth century onward (Isings 1957, p. 162, form 134; Antonaras 2017, pp. 63, 84, forms 13, 36; Antonaras 2022a, pp. 31–33, 56, nos. 260–263). The particular hue of the turquoise thread seems identical to the one used in Syrian products of the sixth–seventh centuries. See comments on cat. 304.

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. 203, no. 568.

Exhibitions

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