of

399. “Cage”-Animal Flask

Accession Number 2003.467
Dimensions Flask: H. 7.0, Diam. rim 4.2 cm, max. Diam. 4.9, Diam. base approx. 4.0 cm; Animal: H. 7.5, L. 10.0 cm; Basket: H. 4.3, Diam. rim 7.0, Diam. base 5.8 cm; Overall: H. 9.8, W. (from forehead to tail) 9.8 cm; Wt. 105.26 g
Date Seventh–eighth centuries CE
Production Area Syrian region
Material Greenish and turquoise glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Free-blown; tooled
View in Collection

Condition

Part of the tail is missing. The flask is cracked. Heavy weathering gives the entire ensemble a brown and whitish coloring.

Description

Flask in the shape of a quadruped with spread legs, as in movement, with a basket on its back carrying a flask.

The flask has flaring, in-folded rim; short, wide neck; globular body; and concave bottom. The rim was pushed onto its upper surface, forming a groove that gives the impression of an applied thick coil around it.

The legs of the animal are fashioned from a single, originally rectangular, flattened mass of glass that was folded and bent at its four ends. Above that, a flattened discoid lump was applied and encircled by a flattened trail pinched in 12 places all around, on which the lower trail of the basket stands. The flask was then added onto this base, and the basket was formed around it. The basket consists of a two-tiered lattice: 12 turquoise folds make up the upper row, and 12 yellowish folds the lower. At that point, the neck, head, and the greenish ears were added. At the center of the animal’s belly, an annular pontil mark (W. 1.4, Th. 0.5 cm) is visible.

Comments and Comparanda

Many perfume vases of this type—representing a flask mounted on an animal—are preserved. They are usually referred to as camels, probably because of the long neck, although no sign of a haunch is rendered. In addition, these glass animals usually appear with curved elongated lumps of glass on the top of the head, which can easily be interpreted as long ears, identifying them thus with donkeys, a very widespread pack animal in that time and the region.

These vessels were made in Syrian and Mesopotamian workshops under Sassanian and Islamic rule (, p. 11). Among published examples are the following: , plates 20–21; , pp. 361–362, fig. 77:4; , no. 64; , p. 36, three examples; , p. 180, no. 184; , pp. 128, 141, no. 244; , p. 11, no. 1; , fig. 13; , p. 122, no. 153; , pp. 24–25, nos. 4a–b; , pp. 112–113, nos. 29–30; , p. 338, no. 441; , pp. 40, 41, nos. 18, 19; , pp. 199–200, no. 188; , pp. 44–45, no. 6.

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

, p. 256, no. 749.

Exhibitions

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