345. Sprinkler Flask

Condition

Fully preserved, but heavily weathered. Black crust and cracks. Has such strong iridescence that it is difficult to discern the original color, but the glass may have originally been colorless.

Description

Fire-polished rim; conical mouth; wide, short neck with a constriction at its base that forms a diaphragm; piriform body; flat, slightly convex bottom. The short, fine base-ring hardly covers the curve of the bottom. At the center of the bottom, a crescent-shaped pontil mark (W. approx. 1 cm) is visible.

The body is decorated with snake-thread decoration formed by a thread with horizontal ridges. The one continuous thread, forming a wide triangle at the start—probably rendering the snake’s head—is wavy, with two rows of higher coils dividing the vessel’s body into three parts, ending with a high coil above the serpent’s “head.”

Comments and Comparanda

On sprinklers, see cat. 344. For parallels, see Auth 1976, p. 121, no. 150; Bomford 1976, p. 26, no. 95; Oliver 1980, p. 96, no. 147; 3000 Jahre Glaskunst, p. 108, nos. 422–424; Stern 2001, p. 166, no. 62; Whitehouse 2001a, p. 222, nos. 791–792.

Provenance

1979, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Constable Maxwell [sold, Sotheby’s, London, 4–5 June 1979, lot 275.]; by 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

Sotheby Parke Bernet 1979, lot. 275.

Exhibitions

None