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Catalogue

87. Fragment of a Dish

Accession Number 2003.258.1
Dimensions pres. H. 1.7, W. 5.6, L. 4.0, Th. 1.8, est. Diam. base ca. 12.0 cm; Wt. 11.89 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Probably Italy, or eastern Mediterranean
Material Translucent purple, gray, and yellow and opaque white glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Assembled of slices of canes, cast, applied base-ring; slumped; rotary polished
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Condition

Body fragment of a vessel, broken all around. The upper surface was polished in modern times; the lower surface, which was left in its original condition, is slightly irregular and pitted.

Description

The fragment is part of a dish’s flat bottom, which stood on a fine purple base-ring. This mosaic vessel is made of circular sections of composite canes of the following types: (1) The first consists of a thin yellow and thick, transparent bluish layer of glass, wound spirally up to seven times. (2) The second consists of a fine white rod surrounded by a thick purple, a fine white, and another fine purple layer of glass. (3) The third represents a seven-petaled rosette. Petals and the central disk, which are made of a grayish glass, are outlined by a fine white layer.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see and comments on cat. 86. This fragment could be part of a shallow carinated dish like cat. 86, or a non-carinated dish (for the class, see , pp. 256–261: composite mosaic vessels: non-carinated forms).

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); 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

, p. 123, no. 332; p. 121, plate no. 332.

Exhibitions

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