56. Aryballos

Condition

Fully preserved. The vessel has much discoloration, visible especially around the mouth and neck. There are a few minor abrasions, such as nicks and scratches.

Description

Translucent dark blue ground; white and yellow combed pattern. Inward-sloping rim-disk with tooling marks above; cylindrical neck; right-angled junction with rounded shoulder; ribbed, spherical-ovoid body; convex bottom. Two blue scroll-shaped handles extend from under the mouth to the shoulder.

An unmarvered yellow thread is wound around the rim. A marvered thread (probably the same one) continues, spiraling twice around the neck and twice around the shoulder, then continuing, spiraling seven more times on the central body, alternating with a white thread in a combed pattern. Around the bottom a white thread is wound two times and a yellow once. A finer, white thread appearing near the bottom is the loose end of the thread wound around the body.

Comments and Comparanda

See comments on cat. 53. For the classification of this particular aryballos, see Grose 1989, class I:B, aryballos form I:2; Arveiller-Dulong and Nenna 2000, p. 125, no. 153.

Provenance

1908, Arnold Vogell, 1857–1911 (Karlsruhe, Germany) [sold, Griechische Altertümer südrussischen Fundorts aus dem Besitze des Herrn A. Vogell, Karlsruhe (Versteigerung), Max Cramer, Cassel, Germany, May 26–30, 1908, lot 1039]; 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

Cramer 1908, lot 1039, ill.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 64, no. 149; p. 65, plate no. 149.

Exhibitions

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

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