372. Inkwell and Cover

Condition

Intact; partly covered by white crust from weathering. The tip of the lid is missing.

Description

Horizontal rim with fire-polished lip; cylindrical body with folded, horizontal flange at top and bottom; flat, slightly concave bottom. No pontil mark is visible on the bottom.

Conical, lopsided lid. It is free-blown, like a small vessel with flaring fire-polished rim; wide neck widening toward the bulbous body, which was folded and pressed, forming a wide horizontal, slightly convex band. This band secured the lid on the opening of the vessel. The rim of the lid is tapered, ending in a tubular tip.

Comments and Comparanda

In Roman times, inkwells, atramentaria in Latin (Hilgers 1969, s.v. “atramentarium,” pp. 39, 112), were predominantly made of metal and clay, but in the first century CE they were also rendered in glass. Three forms of glass inkwells have been identified: two with cylindrical body and one with short hemispherical body. Their use becomes evident from the narrow opening with fire-polished edge that is placed at the center of the horizontal upper surface of the vessel, as in the clay and metal inkwells (Fünfschilling 2012, pp. 194–195; Eckardt 2017, pp. 53–107). The more widely distributed shorter and wider cylindrical form was probably produced in the west. The form was supplemented with three loop handles on the upper surface of the vase (Isings 1957, p. 93, form 77). A slender, handleless cylindrical form is ascribed to eastern Mediterranean workshops (Whitehouse 1997a, p. 199, no. 347, and particularly comments on no. 360; Israeli 2003, p. 121, no. 118) (this vessel, cat. 373). This form was supplemented with a lid, either biconical or cylindrical. A less widely distributed variant, rendered in clay as well (Broneer 1935, pp. 72–73, fig. 17; Eckardt 2017, pp. 55–57), has a hemispherical body and a seemingly flat or slightly convex upper surface with narrow fire-rounded rim at the center and one handle (cats. 374–375). There are parallels from the eastern Mediterranean that date the form to the first–second centuries CE (Lightfoot 2013a, pp. 426–427, figs. 3–4: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/249364; Arveiller-Dulong and Nenna 2005, pp. 187, 249, no. 752; Davidson 1952, p. 101, no. 636, fig. 8; Antonaras 2022a, pp. 68–69, no. 443). For direct parallels, see Dusenbery 1971, p. 19, no. 23; Hayes 1975, p. 55, no. 129; Auth 1976, p. 119, nos. 145, 146; Alexander and Greuel 1990, no. 71 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1943.1166a-b: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/119257/inkwell); Whitehouse 1997a, pp. 199, 209, nos. 347, 360; Israeli 2003, p. 121, no. 118; Fünfschilling 2012, p. 195, fig. 47; Antonaras 2012, p. 252, nos. 411, 412; Lightfoot 2013a, p. 426, n. 6, fig. 1.

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948; 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 et al. 1974, p. 112, no. 298; p. 114, plate no. 298.

Wight 2011, pp. 104, 124, fig. 95.

Lightfoot 2013a, pp. 425–426.

Exhibitions

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

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