374. Inkwell

Condition

Intact. Incrustation on the inside.

Description

Small, circular opening at the center of a wide, horizontal, concave rim. A fold of the glass forms a ridge at the transition to the conical body, which tapers to the base; the bottom is slightly concave. A thick coil handle starts on the lower part of the body, forms a small ring, and ends on the ridge. A very fine annular pontil scar (W. 1.8, Th. 0.1 cm) is visible in the center of the bottom.

Comments and Comparanda

On inkwells in general, see comments on cat. 372. The closest parallel to this vessel is an unpublished find from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (17.194.119): http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/249364. For a one-handled example with similar body shape from Syria, ascribed to a Syro-Palestinian production and dated to the second century CE, see Arveiller-Dulong and Nenna 2005, pp. 187, 249, no. 752, with further bibliography. Two other examples are known from Corinth, dated to the first and early second centuries, respectively: Davidson 1952, p. 101, no. 636, fig. 8; Antonaras 2022a, pp. 68–69, 119, no. 443.

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 et al. 1974, p. 203, no. 571.

Wight 2011, pp. 104, 122, fig. 92.

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)