Condition
Fragment.
Description
Appliqué in the shape of a fish. The mouth forms the opening, and there is a large dorsal fin with vertical striations separately applied. The end of the tail has broken off. On the back side of the fish’s body is visible the scar from the point that connected the appliqué to the vessel.
Comments and Comparanda
This appliqué belongs to a type of cup, known as conchylia cups, that was decorated with three or four rows of fish, shells, and other sea creatures. These faced left, like this example, or more rarely vertically (on the class, see Doppelfeld, Otto. 1973. “Kölner Konchylienbecher.” In Archaeologie en Historie: Opgedragen aan H. Brunsting bij zijn seventigste verjaardag, ed. Willem Albertus van Es and Hendrik Brunsting, 281–294. Bussum: Fibula-Van Dishoeck.; Doppelfeld, Otto. 1976. “Der neue Kölner Konchylienbecher.” In Festschrift für Waldemar Haberey, ed. Thea Elisabetha Haevernick and Axel von Saldern, 23–28. Mainz: von Zabern.). Three of the known examples were found in Cologne (Fremersdorf, Fritz. 1961. Römisches geformtes Glas in Köln. Die Denkmäler des römischen Köln 6. Cologne: Verlag der Löwe., pp. 23–24, plate 15 and pp. 26–27, plate 21; Doppelfeld, Otto. 1973. “Kölner Konchylienbecher.” In Archaeologie en Historie: Opgedragen aan H. Brunsting bij zijn seventigste verjaardag, ed. Willem Albertus van Es and Hendrik Brunsting, 281–294. Bussum: Fibula-Van Dishoeck., pp. 281–283, figs. 1–3; Glass from the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection. 1957. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass in the Corning Glass Center., p. 255, no. 144), one from Trier (Goethert-Polaschek. Karin. 1977. Katalog der römischen Gläser des Rheinischen Landesmuseums Trier. Trierer Grabungen und Forschungen Band IX. Mainz am Rhein: Zabern., pp. 63–64, no. 241, and p. 319, tomb 252, plate 24), and one from Rome (Fremersdorf, Fritz. 1975. Antikes, islamisches und mittelalterliches Glas, sowie kleinere Arbeiten aus Stein, Gagat und verwandten Stoffen in den Vatikanischen Sammlungen Roms (Museo Sacro, Museo Profano, Museo Egizio, Antiquarium Romanum). Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana., pp. 72–73, no. 706, plate 32). Single fish have been found around the Mediterranean, such as at Corinth (Davidson, G. R. 1952. The Minor Objects. Corinth XII. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens., p. 98, no. 619, plate 54; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2022. East of the Theater: Glassware and Glass Production. Corinth XIX.1. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens., pp. 52, 98, no. 201) and on Crete (Price, Jennifer. 1992. “Hellenistic and Roman Glass.” In Knossos from Greek City to Roman Colony, Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion II, ed. L. H. Sackett et al., 415–490. London: Thames and Hudson., pp. 428, 447, no. 160); others were purchased in eastern Mediterranean cities, such as Cairo (Glass from the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection. 1957. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass in the Corning Glass Center., p. 163, no. 336; Whitehouse, David B. 2001. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., p. 237, no. 824) and Tyre (Arveiller-Dulong, Véronique, and Marie-Dominique Nenna. 2005. Les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre 2: Vaisselle et contenants du Ier siècle au début du VIIe siècle après J.-C. Paris: Somogy., no. 981); and yet another, unprovenanced, has been published (Schlick-Nolte, Birgit. 2002. “Ancient Glass Vessels.” In Reflections on Ancient Glass from the Borowski Collection: Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, ed. Robert S. Bianchi, 41–110. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 102, no. V-64). They are considered to be products of the region of Cologne or Trier, and of another production center on the Mediterranean. The few of them that have been dated independently are placed at the end of the third–early fourth century CE.
The fact that several single fish appliqués have been unearthed as isolated excavation finds indicates that once they were separated from the body of the vessel they were kept and repurposed, probably as amulets (Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., p. 141).
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. 215, no. 623.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 97, 100, fig. 70.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)