355. Amphoriskos

Condition

Reassembled, with small fills on the body.

Description

Vertical rim, folded out, down, and up, with an overhanging flange; short, splaying neck merging with the oval body, which is standing on a folded base-ring and a concave bottom. Two opposing strap handles with two ridges attached on the shoulder, pulled up and in, under the rim. The body and the handles are made of translucent purple glass and are covered with opaque white, yellow, light blue, turquoise, and dark blue chips marvered to be incorporated in the body. The lower part of the handles is stretched downward on the body and pinched seven times.

Comments and Comparanda

This form is a small-size tableware glass vessel that originated in the Tiberian-Claudian period and remained in use until the end of the first century CE (Isings 1957, pp. 32–34, form 15; Biaggio-Simona 1991, vol. 1, pp. 209–213). Published parallels connect this form to northern Italy and the Ticino region in Switzerland. For amphoriskoi with splashware, see Berger 1960, pp. 34–37, plate 4; La Baume and Salomonson 1976, p. 26, no. 17; Auth 1976, p. 60, no. 55; Harden et al. 1987, p. 112, no. 45 = Whitehouse 1997a, pp. 209–10, no. 361, acquired in Lebanon; Kunina 1997, pp. 151–152, 293, nos. 187–191, from Pantikapaion near the Black Sea, in particular no. 188. In general on this decorative technique, see Fremersdorf 1938, pp. 116–121, summarized in English in Harden et al. 1987, pp. 101–103; and comments on cat. 158. This form is divided into three groups on the basis of the size of the speckles and whether they were marvered into the vessel’s body or if they were left in relief. This vessel belongs to the third group, where the speckles of colored glass have been applied, heated in situ, and marvered flush; then the vessel was expanded to its final dimensions, greatly distorting the speckles on the areas that expanded the most, in this case on the upper part of the body and the neck.

Provenance

By 1966, Galerie Heidi Vollmoeller (Zürich, Switzerland); 1970, Private Collection [sold, Antiken-Auktion, Galerie Am Neumarkt and Galerie Heidi Vollmoeller, Zurich, Switzerland, November 27, 1970, lot 128]; 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

Galerie Heidi Vollmoeller 1966, no. 2632.

Galerie am Neumarkt 1970, no. 128.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 139, no. 391.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)