Condition
Fully preserved; iridescence on the upper surface of the rim, and cracked on the bottom. A fill on the blue lug. Dark-colored remains of the core are visible in the interior.
Description
Translucent dark blue ground; turquoise and yellow decoration. Moderately broad, horizontal rim-disk, uneven and sloping inward; cylindrical neck; vestigial shoulder; straight-sided fusiform body; convex pointed bottom. Below the shoulder, two opposing lugs; one lug is yellow and the other is blue.
A marvered opaque turquoise thread is spirally wound in almost horizontal lines from the center of the bottom to the rim 37 times, ending in the neck. Along the upper part of the body, from the shoulder down to the point where the body turns inward toward the bottom, it was dragged upward 21 times, forming a festoon pattern.
Comments and Comparanda
On core-formed alabastra of this period, see comments on cat. 29. For the classification of this particular alabastron, see 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:5: pp. 168–169, nos. 166–167; 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., form 18, pp. 122–123.
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., pp. 75–76, no. 199; p. 77, plate no. 199.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)