379. Kohl Tube

Condition

One handle missing. A little weathering and some incrustation.

Description

Faint remains of a turquoise thread, which was wound three times around the rim, are noticeable. Body cylindrical; pad disk base. Some tooling marks on the underside of the base indicate that it was made with a thick coil of glass wound three times and flattened, forming a disk.

On the body, there are five rows of decoration. Each row consists of a pair of fine threads (currently appearing white due to weathering) that curve and intertwine, forming three conjoined ovals. At the center of each oval is a round blob of turquoise glass. The vessel is noticeably heavier compared to other glass vessels of similar size and shape.

Comments and Comparanda

Small, tubular vessels, known as kohl tubes, are separated into two groups on the basis of their decoration. The majority bear spiraling ribs formed by twisting the vessel while it was still hot and malleable (on rod-formed kohl tubes with spiraled ribbed decoration, see cat. 376). A much more concise group includes tubes that bear applied decoration, with just a few published examples, among which is this vessel. Parallels include a vessel from the al-Sabah Collection, now in the Kuwait National Museum (Carboni 2001, p. 294, no. 74); one from the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Israeli 2003, p. 381, no. 516), one in the Okayama Orient Museum (Taniichi 1987, p. 90, no. 111, illustrated on p. 53), and one in the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse 2014, pp. 187–188, no. 931).

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. 254, no. 744.

Exhibitions

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