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Catalogue

98. Fragment of a Mosaic Glass Vessel

Accession Number 83.AF.28.16
Dimensions L. 3.4, W. 3.1, Th. 0.4–0.5 cm; Wt. 6.15 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or Egypt
Material Translucent blue and opaque yellow, white, red, turquoise, and orange glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Made from a polychrome disk-shaped blank assembled from fused-together lengths and sections of round mosaic canes; slumped; rotary polished
View in Collection

Condition

Fragment, broken all around.

Description

Convex fragment of the lower part of a curved vessel, probably a bowl. The preserved part of the vessel consists of multicolored tesserae. The fragment was deformed by fire. The tesserae appear quite unusual at first glance, but closer inspection identifies in them deformed and discolored features of the floral motifs that appear in the plaques with the Nilotic flora, such as cat. 460.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see comments on cat. 86. On the trade of small fragments of mosaic glass in the nineteenth century and on the different techniques and classes of mosaic glass present in the Getty collection, see comments on cat. 95.

Provenance

1983, Jiří K. Frel, 1923–2006, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983

Bibliography

Unpublished

Exhibitions

None