Condition
Body fragment. On the interior side a thick, reddish-yellow layer is preserved from remains of the core.
Description
Translucent dark blue ground; opaque turquoise and white decoration. Fragment of the body of a seemingly cylindrical vessel. One opaque yellow and one white thread, both marvered, are spirally wound around the upper body and dragged upward, forming a zigzag pattern.
Comments and Comparanda
Different forms of ceramic vessels were rendered in glass with core-forming from 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. Amphoriskoi (small amphorae), alabastra, aryballoi, and oinochoiskai (juglets) were imitated in core-formed glass, although the original shape of the core-formed vessel that this fragment comes from has not been identified. It is believed that these vessels 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). The earlier examples, dating from the middle of the sixth 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), were 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.
Provenance
1983, Jiří K. Frel, 1923–2006, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983
Bibliography
Unpublished
Exhibitions
None