Condition
Lower part of the body and neck restored.
Description
In-folded and flattened, flaring rim; in its current state, short neck; biconical body. A white trail of glass has been spirally wound approximately 15 times from the bottom to the rim and dragged upward four times, forming an irregular feathering pattern. The trail was tooled and melted flush with the vessel surface. The neck originally was probably much longer, as it is in all cited parallels.
Comments and Comparanda
Tear- or drop-shaped flasks for unguents are a relatively widespread form of unguentarium, dated to the first century CE. This particular variant is considered to be an eastern Mediterranean product. They are either plain or decorated with a fine thread of glass, either left in relief, as in cats. 332–333, or marvered flush, as in this vessel.
Published examples include several plain ones from Pompeii (Scatozza Höricht, Lucia Amalia. 2012. L’instrumentum vitreum di Pompei. Rome: Arachne., p. 140, no. 11294A, plate XXVIII); Venice (Larese, Annamaria. 2004. Vetri antichi del Veneto. Corpus delle collezioni del vetro in Venezia 8. Venice: Comitato Nazionale Italiano, AIHV., no. 393, plate XI); Cyprus (McFadden, George H. 1946. “A Tomb of the Necropolis of Ayios Ermoyenis at Kourion.” American Journal of Archaeology 50: 449–489., p. 486, no. 114, plate 45; Vessberg, Olof. 1952. “Roman Glass in Cyprus.” Opuscula Archaeologica 7: 109–165., p. 141, plate IX:30); Amphipolis (Weinberg, Gladys D. 1963. “Grèce.” Bulletin des Journées Internationales du Verre 2: 104–107., pp. 1–2); Palestine (Barag, Dan. 1970. “Glass Vessels of the Roman and Byzantine Periods in Palestine.” PhD diss. [in Hebrew], Hebrew University, Jerusalem., vol. 2, type XXII:2); Adana region (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1989. “Glass Vessels Exhibited in the Bölge Museum, Adana.” Belleten Türk Tarih Kurumu 53: 583–593., p. 590, fig. 10:5–8); Amorgos (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., pp. 115–116, no. 80); Aquileia (Mandruzzato, Luciana, and Alessandra Marcante. 2007. Vetri antichi del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia: Balsamari, olle e pissidi. Corpus delle Collezioni del Vetro in Friuli Venezia Giulia 3. Venice: Comitato Nazionale Italiano, AIHV., pp. 104, 139, nos. 289–290); and unprovenanced (Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 214, no. 323).
In addition, unprovenanced examples decorated with a trail left in relief are reported from several museums: Whitehouse, David B. 2001. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., p. 170, no. 702; Kunz, Martin, ed. 1981. 3000 Jahre Glaskunst: Von der Antike bis zum Jugendstil, exh. cat. Lucerne: Kunstmuseum., p. 220, no. 638; Ancient Glass: The Bomford Collection of Pre-Roman and Roman Glass on Loan to the City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. 1976. Bristol: Museum and Art Gallery., p. 20, no. 57; Fleming, Stuart J. 1999. Roman Glass: Reflections on Cultural Change. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology., p. 30; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 214, no. 324. Parallels with trails marvered and dragged upward include the following unprovenanced examples: Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., p. 62, no. 6; Matheson, Susan B. 1980. Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery., pp. 24–25, no. 65; Oliver, Andrew, Jr. 1980. Ancient Glass in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh. Pittsbourgh, PA: Carnegie Institute., pp. 52, 56, nos. 37–38.
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. 136, no.381.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)