Condition
Complete; distorted by fire. Milky weathering covers the surface; few pinprick bubbles.
Description
Tubular, in-folded, and slightly out-splayed rim; long, cylindrical neck; probably oval body with flat bottom. No pontil mark visible on the bottom.
Comments and Comparanda
This unguentarium belongs to one of the most common groups and was widely distributed all over the Mediterranean region during the first and early second centuries CE; see Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., p. 24, form 8; Vessberg, Olof. 1952. “Roman Glass in Cyprus.” Opuscula Archaeologica 7: 109–165., plate IX:17; Barag, Dan. 1970. “Glass Vessels of the Roman and Byzantine Periods in Palestine.” PhD diss. [in Hebrew], Hebrew University, Jerusalem., vol. 2, plate 44, type XVI:2; Nicolaou, I. 1984. “An Hellenistic and Roman Tomb at Eurychou-Phoenikas.” RDAC, 234–255., p. 245, no. 184, plate LIII:184; 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. 84–85, types 70–72; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., pp. 214–215, nos. 325–328. They are very often found in burials, both inhumations and cremations. Those that were placed in the burial pyre, like this vessel, are heavily distorted.
Provenance
Arnold Vogell, 1857–1911 (Karlsruhe, Germany); 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. 199, no. 552.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)