436. Miniature Jar

Condition

Intact; most of the vessel is covered with iridescent and in other areas milky white weathering. A few pinprick bubbles, no impurities.

Description

The vessel has a flaring, fire-polished rim; practically no neck at all, just a constriction leading to the ovular body. The lower part of the body is folded, forming a tubular base-ring. The bottom of the vessel is mildly concave, and at the center of the undersurface the scar of a solid pontil (Diam. 0.6 cm) is visible.

Comments and Comparanda

This particular variant of globular jar with a pushed-in base-ring is known from excavations at Fustat, an area of medieval Cairo in Egypt (Scanlon and Pinder-Wilson 2001, pp. 50–51, type 22c, from a pit dated in the early eleventh century). For simpler globular jars, see comments on cat. 434.

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. 207, no. 582.

Exhibitions

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