Condition
Mended; some fills on neck, with some signs of weathering, pitting, and discoloration. The handles were restored. On the body two shades of blue are visible, possibly as a result of breakage and mending.
Description
Translucent dark blue ground; opaque yellow decoration. Moderately broad, inward-sloping rim-disk; cylindrical neck, tapering upward; obtuse-angled shoulder; slim, ovoid body; convex pointed bottom; short, spherical light greenish base-knob. Two opposing vertical translucent greenish strap handles extend from the shoulder to just below the rim, bend, and then attach on the middle of the neck.
A marvered opaque yellow thread is wound on the rim and spirals to the bottom 22 times, in horizontal lines to the shoulder, tooled to form a carelessly executed feathered pattern on the body, and finally in a straight-lined spiral on the bottom near the base-knob.
Comments and Comparanda
Amphoriskoi are one of the two main vessel forms produced in glass workshops active in the eastern Mediterranean between the middle of the second century BCE and the early first century CE, conventionally referred to as Mediterranean group III, a period of revival of core-forming, after a century-long period of stasis during which no new glass vessel forms were introduced. On Mediterranean group III: Harden, Donald B. 1981. Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. 1: Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenean Cast Objects. London: British Museum., pp. 123–141; McClellan, Murray. 1984. “Core-Formed Glass from Dated Contexts.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia., pp. 127–164; Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., pp. 122–125; Stern, Eva Marianne, and Birgit Schlick–Nolte. 1994. Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.–A.D. 50: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern: Gerd Hatje., p. 39. For the classification of this particular vessel, see Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., class III:E, amphoriskos form III:2B: pp. 169–172, nos. 168–176.
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 78, no. 209; p. 79, plate no. 209.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)