45. Amphoriskos

Condition

Mended; areas with whitish weathering, especially on the handles. Parts of the rim, shoulder, and handles are restored. The entire vessel is coated with a transparent greenish varnish.

Description

Translucent dark blue-green, transparent greenish, and opaque turquoise and yellow glass. Narrow, outward-splayed flattened rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck; sloping obtuse-angled shoulder; conical body; convex pointed bottom. An oval knob of greenish glass is applied on the center of the bottom. Two greenish, large opposing coil handles stretch vertically from shoulder to upper neck under the rim.

A yellow and a turquoise thread—both marvered—are spirally wound 27 times from the rim to bottom. The threads have been dragged 26 times up and down from the shoulder to the bottom, forming a festoon pattern.

Comments and Comparanda

On core-formed amphoriskoi of this period, see comments on cat. 43. For the classification of this particular amphoriskos, see Grose 1989, class III:E, amphoriskos form III:2B: pp. 170–172, nos. 170–174. The shoulder area was restored, forming an unexpected obtuse angle between the neck and the body, compared for instance with cat. 46, which is more typical for the form.

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. 80, no. 214.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

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