Condition
Fully preserved. Some cracks along the body; some iridescence on the exterior.
Description
Fire-polished, flaring rim; cylindrical neck, widening toward the squat, bulbous body; slightly convex bottom. No pontil mark visible. A fine white thread was spirally wound 18 times from the middle of the neck to the bottom.
Comments and Comparanda
Bulbous and globular unguentaria appear from the early first century CE, and during the same century they become one of the most widespread forms of flask, known in both the eastern and the western Roman provinces (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1977. Ancient Glass at the Fondation Custodia (Collection Frits Lugt) Paris. Archaeologia Traiectina 12. Groningen: Wolfers-Noordhoff., p. 35; 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). They are often decorated with spirally wound threads, more often than not left unmarvered (Antonaras, Anastassios. 2017. Glassware and Glassworking in Thessaloniki: First Century BC–Sixth Century AD. Oxford: Archaeopress., p. 146, form 122a, wherein several parallels are cited). For additional parallels, see Dusenbery, Εlsbeth. 1967. “Ancient Glass from the Cemeteries of Samothrace.” Journal of Glass Studies 9: 34–49., p. 41, nos. 16–17, figs. 17–18; 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:1-1; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., p. 57, no. 1; Israeli, Yael. 2003. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: The Eliahu Dobkin Collection and Other Gifts. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., p. 116, no. 103; Arveiller-Dulong, Véronique, and Marie-Dominique Nenna. 2005. Les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre 2: Vaisselle et contenants du Ier siècle au début du VIIe siècle après J.-C. Paris: Somogy., p. 201, no. 564; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 212, no. 317.
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. 222, no. 647.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 62, 65, fig. 40.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)