tour 11 of 21
The art of glass
Four glass claw beakers
The princely burial at Taplow contained a range
of high-status possessions including these four claw beakers made
from clear olive green glass. These were found in three separate
areas of the burial. One lay beyond the feet of the dead man, near
a drinking horn, a set of gaming pieces and a musical instrument;
two were found in a container placed over the knees, together with
two more drinking horns, and the fourth was found on the left of
the body at shoulder level, close to a remarkable cast bronze
pedestal bowl made in the eastern
Mediterranean.
The two
beakers on the right of the picture are a matching pair. They have
a slashed trail on the claws and a simple slashed band separating
the neck from the body. The neck is ornamented with a fine spiral
trail that winds sixteen times around the neck. The body cone is
also ornamented with a fine spiral trail of sixteen
turns.
The two beakers on
the left of the picture are taller and narrow with a fine 16-turn
spiral trail on the neck separated from the body of the cone by a
heavily slashed trail. One beaker also has additional whorls of
glass placed centrally between the tops of the upper tier of claws.
The bases are made from separate discs of glass (unlike the other
pair).