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439. Fragment of Gold Sandwich Glass

Accession Number 83.AK.29
Dimensions pres. H. 1.8, Diam. base 5.2, max. pres. Diam. 8.2 cm; Wt. 45.50 g
Date Late nineteenth or early twentieth century
Production Area Europe, possibly Italy
Material Colorless glass; gold foil
Modeling Technique and Decoration Free-blown; gold-glass trail
View in Collection

Condition

Fragment, broken all around.

Description

Part of the bottom of a bowl. A gold-glass-trail inscription in two rows divided by a line: INNO / CENTI innocenti, i.e., innocents; set in a rectangular frame with a straight, fine line and a folded exterior one.

Comments and Comparanda

This is a replica imitating a special group of glass vessels with an inscription in gold placed between two layers of transparent glass, in the gilt-glass-trail technique. On the taste for copies of late Roman gold-glass vessels in the late nineteenth century, see comments on cat. 438. In a rectangular, often colored—for example, blue or red—frame, a generic “cheers” phrase was written in two lines, such as ANNI / BONI, etc. They are dated to the second half of the third century CE and are products of a western, probably Italian workshop. See , pp. 65–66, plate 86; , pp. 71–79; , p. 105, no. 285; , p. 144, no. 55.

Provenance

1983, Jiří K. Frel, 1923–2006, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983

Bibliography

, p. 259, no. 160.

Exhibitions

None