Condition
Intact. Large portions of the thread are missing, as indicated only by the cavities where it originally lay. Small areas with iridescent weathering, especially on the rim.
Description
Fire-polished, flaring rim; long cylindrical neck, wider toward the squat, bulbous body, which is standing on a flat, slightly concave bottom. A white thread of glass has been spirally wound 16 times from the center of the bottom to the rim and dragged up five times, forming a pattern of festoons on the upper body and neck area. The fusion of the thread into the body of the vessel was achieved by applying it at an early stage of the blowing and marvering it before the vessel was given its final dimensions.
Comments and Comparanda
This form of small flask, known also as an unguentarium or balsamarium, is quite common in both the east and the west in the first half of the first century CE. They appear either undecorated or with spirally wound trails, more often marvered flush with the surface. For parallels, see Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., pp. 22–23, form 6; Barag, Dan. 1970. “Glass Vessels of the Roman and Byzantine Periods in Palestine.” PhD diss. [in Hebrew], Hebrew University, Jerusalem., vol. 2, plate 41, type XV:1; Stern, Eva Marianne. 1977. Ancient Glass at the Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt) Paris. Archaeologia Traiectina 12. Groningen: Wolfers-Noordhoff., pp. 32–33, no. 6A; Czurda-Ruth, Barbara. 1979. Die Römischen Gläser von Magdalensberg. Kärntner Museumsschriften 65; Archäologische Forschungen zu den Grabungen auf dem Magdalensberg 6. Klagenfurt: Landesmuseum für Kärnten., pp. 105–111, plates 14, 21; Matheson, Susan B. 1980. Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery., pp. 26–27, no. 70; Kaltsas, Nikolaos. 1983. “From the Hellenistic Necropoleis of Pylos.” Archaiologikon Deltion 38: 1–75., pp. 24–25, plate 32:d; De Tommaso, Giandomenico. 1990. Ampullae vitreae: Contenitori in vetro di unguenti e sostanze aromatiche dell’Italia romana (I sec. a.C.–III sec. d.C.). Roma: Bretschneider., pp. 39–40, type 5; Weinberg, Gladys D., and Murray C. McClellan. 1992. Glass Vessels in Ancient Greece: Their History Illustrated from the Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Athens: Archaeological Receipt Fund., p. 117, no. 83; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., pp. 58, 60, nos. 2, 4; Israeli, Yael. 2003. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: The Eliahu Dobkin Collection and Other Gifts. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., p. 115, nos. 100–102; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 209, no. 308.
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 130, no. 351.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples (Los Angeles, 2009)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)