572. Pin

Condition

Intact; covered with iridescent weathering.

Description

Smooth glass rod, circular in cross section, pointed at one end and with a conical head at the other.

Comments and Comparanda

Glass pins are a rare find. They are similar to so-called stirring rods (see cat. 570), which have a tiny disk on one end and a vessel or animal on the other, if not bent into a closed ring; almost always their cylindrical shaft is twisted (Isings 1957, pp. 94–95, form 79; Antonaras 2017, pp. 166–167, form 148). They are even closer to twisted rods, pointed at one end and decorated with a vessel or animal on the other end, identified as distaffs (Gojković 2015, pp. 267–268) and glass needles (Antonaras 2017, pp. 166–167, form 148D).

Glass pins like 2003.404 recall the ancient Greek kalamis (καλαμίς) or the Latin discerniculum, that is, a long, thin object used by women to divide the locks of their hair when arranging a complicated hairstyle, thereby identifying it with a rare kind of hairpin (Oxford Latin Dictionary, s.v. “discerniculum”; Liddell and Scott, s.v. “καλαμίς”). For finds of this type, see Davaras 1985, p. 201; Platz-Horster 1976, p. 82, no. 166; Barkóczi 1996, p. 106, no. 341; Mandruzzato et al. 2008, p. 53, no. 34.

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. 215, no. 621.

Exhibitions

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