7. Kohl Tube

Condition

Condition is good, but the orange glass is fragmented. There are a few minor nicks, fills, and scratches.

Description

Upright, rounded rim and short, cylindrical greenish-turquoise neck; right-angled junction with vestigial shoulder; elongated body, square in cross-section, tapering downward; almost flat bottom rounded at the periphery. The interior is cylindrical, and the bottom is about 1 cm thick.

On the rim is a twisted blue and white thread. On the body, two orange threads flush with the surface are spirally wound and dragged upward at two points on each side, forming festoons. The one on the upper part of the body is wound spirally six times, and the one on the lower part is wound four times. Three opaque white threads are wound horizontally and are flush with the surface. One is on the shoulder, over the orange thread, and two more at the middle of the body, in the void band between the orange threads. Two twisted blue and white threads were applied along the corner edge of each side. Each thread starts on the shoulder of one edge, continues along it, curves at the bottom, and continues along the second edge to the shoulder. A white blob is added on each shoulder that is left protruding toward the neck.

Comments and Comparanda

These small, tubular vases—assumed to have been used to hold kohl, an eyeliner of antiquity—are known as kohl tubes. They were rod-formed, that is, made by collecting molten glass on one end of a metal rod, which was pulled out after the vessel was formed and decorated, and while it was still hot. They are usually made of dark-colored glass decorated with bright-colored threads dragged to form zigzag or feathered patterns, or rarely festoons like this vessel. Depending on the shape of their body, they are classified into three groups—I. square, II. cylindrical, and III. flattened pear–shaped—and then divided into subgroups in relation to their decoration. So, this vessel belongs to a rare group of tubes with square cross-section and additional knobs on the corners of the shoulders (group IC). The other two examples in the Getty collection belong to a homogeneous, relatively numerous group of circular kohl tubes. The first subgroup (group IIC; e.g., cat. 8) is distinguished by their convex base and the thread decoration, composed of threads of one or two colors marvered into the surface and dragged to form festoons. Another subgroup of cylindrical tubes (group IIB) in the collection are decorated with spirally wound coil decoration, in this case of the same color as the body and dragged up and down, forming a feather pattern (cat. 9).

They are considered Iranian products, because that is where most of them were unearthed, although occasionally they found their way to distant regions such as Assyria, Georgia, and even Cyprus. They are dated to the fifth and fourth centuries but mainly to the fifth century BCE (Barag 1975).

Provenance

By 1967–1988, 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

JGS 1967, p. 133, no. 4.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 48, no. 103; p. 52, plate no. 103.

Barag 1975, pp. 24 n. 4, 35, IC.3, fig. 25.

Exhibitions

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

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