370. Quadripartite Kohl Tube

Condition

Intact.

Description

The vessel comprises two glass tubes, each bent at the middle and fused together, forming a four-compartment body on a flat bottom. The tubes have in-folded, slightly everted rims. At the center of the bottom is a solid, circular pontil mark (W. 1.7 cm). A fine thread is wound spirally 21 times around the body. On the four corners of the vessel a thick trail stretches from the bottom to the rim, looped eight to nine times against the body. A pair of vertical basket handles rise from the rims, bridged at the top by a third handle, perpendicular to them. At mid-height the handles are bridged with a pair of smaller basket handles placed on opposite sides.

Comments and Comparanda

On kohl tubes, see comments on cat. 369. In addition, for direct comparanda, see Harden 1964, p. 53, fig. 12, top right; Barag 1970a, vol. 2, plate 39, type XII:9; Stern 2001, p. 320, no. 182; Antonaras 2012, p. 283, no. 441.

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

von Saldern 1968, p. 18, no. 29.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 232, no. 681b.

Exhibitions

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

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

Meisterwerke der Glaskunst aus internationalem Privatbesitz (Düsseldorf, 1968–1969)