Condition
Mild pitting. A burst bubble on the lower part of the handle. Tooling marks on the upper surface of the base. Whitish remains of the core in the interior.
Description:
Core-formed, opaque white oinochoe decorated with translucent purple threads. Trefoil rim-disk; short, cylindrical neck; sloping shoulder; ovoid body; convex bottom; discoid conical base. Tall, strap handle, arching well above the rim-disk, applied on the shoulder and attached on the rim.
One unmarvered thread around the rim and the base. A marvered thread is wound eight times from neck to mid-body. The last four coils, on the wider part of the body, are dragged up and down, forming a zigzag pattern; the last three coils are adjacent, appearing as one wide thread. Just below the zigzag pattern, another purple thread is wound twice around.
Comments and Comparanda
The oinochoiske (juglet) was one of the ceramic vessel forms that had been rendered in glass with core-forming since the sixth century BCE, when this technique, known in Mesopotamia and Egypt since the middle of the second millennium BCE, was introduced in the Aegean world. In addition to oinochoiskai, amphoriskoi (small amphorae), alabastra, and aryballoi were imitated in core-formed glass. It is believed that they functioned as unguentaria, intended for aromatic and cosmetic substances (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.; McClellan, Murray. 1984. “Core-Formed Glass from Dated Contexts.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.; 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. 109–125; 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., pp. 37–44).
This object belongs to the earliest group of Aegean core-formed vessels, dating from the middle of the sixth century to the end of the fifth century BCE (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. 58–99; 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. 110–115), made either of blue glass and decorated with white, yellow, and turquoise threads or of milky white glass decorated with purple threads. Vessels of this group have been found in great numbers in Rhodes, Macedonia, the Aegean islands, and Italy. For the classification of this particular oinochoe, 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 I:A, oinochoe form I:2: pp. 148–149, nos. 110–113.
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. 66, no. 155; p. 57, plate no. 155.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)