alabastron
- Museum number
- 1856,1226.1158
- Description
-
Core-formed glass alabastron.
Opaque orange trails and handles, translucent dark blue body. Body speckled with tiny opaque white spots of scum.
Broad rim-disc, bevelled inward, tool-marks on upper and under surfaces; tallish neck, cylindrical within, but tapering downward on the outside; vestigial round-angled shoulder; elongated oval body with convex sides; rounded bottom. Below shoulder, two vertical ring-handles with knobbed tails. Handles poorly made with tooled depression on each side, not pierced through.
Unmarvered orange trail round edge of lip. Otherwise plain.
Core-formed; rim-disc and handles trailed on and tooled, the handles formed by drawing upward from a drop-on at bottom and folding inward over a tool to make the ring.
- Production date
- 550BC-375BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 2.50 centimetres (body)
-
Diameter: 2.30 centimetres (rim)
-
Height: 8.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- BM Glass
Fossing 1940, 62f., note 4.
For the speckling on the body, cf. BM Glass 147.
The manner of the handles is like no other example of Mediterranean group 1 (as definited in BM Glass), but is common in group 2. In this vessel it must surely be due merely to poor workmanship and should not be taken to indicate that the vessel is degenerate and late.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Intact. Some usage scratches but the whole surface retains its pristine sheen.
- Acquisition date
- 1856
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1856,1226.1158
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: DBH.0064 (Harden number)