RHODIAN CAST MONOCHROME BOWL

RHODIAN CAST MONOCHROME BOWL of  Nico F. Bijnsdorp

Rhodian cast monochrome bowl

Rhodian cast monochrome bowl

Late 4th – early 3rd century BC. Rhodian.
H = 3.7 cm. Dmax = 12.2 cm. Drim = 12.2 cm. Dbase = 3.2 cm. Weight = 188 gr.

Classification
Triantafyllidis: Rhodian shallow phialai group B1.

Condition
Crack over almost entire body but not broken and complete. Slight iridescence, surface well preserved.

Technique
Cast and polished. Cut on both interior and exterior.

Description
Almost colorless transparent glass with slight greenish tinge.
Thick walled (5 mm) shallow bowl. Outsplayed rim with rounded edge, flaring gently from almost straight sides. Wide horizontal groove (2 mm) on interior below rim, highlighting distinct carination between upper wall and rim. Slightly concave bottom encircled by a groove (1.5 mm), from where twenty one (21) elongated lanceolate petals with rounded ends radiate upward to the wall, where they are encircled by a pronounced horizontal groove that marks the junction of the lower wall and bottom. In the middle of each petal a median groove is cut.

Remarks
Shallow cast monochrome bowls with slightly carinated walls at the height of the shoulder and the base of the rim were produced in Rhodian glass workshops from the late 5th century until the third quarter of the 4th century BC (Triantafyllidis). Glasswork from Rhodes in this period was influenced by glassworkers from Persia during the Achaemenid period (ca 550-330 BC) which makes it difficult to define the place of manufacture. The color of the glass, the profile of the bowl and the cutting of the radiating petals are the primary reason for defining the date and place of manufacture of the bowl: Rhodian rather than Persian.

Provenance
Ex collection Joseph Uzan, Paris.

Published
Enchères Rive Gauche, 19-20 November 2012.

References
Grose 1989, Toledo Museum, No. 34.
Goldstein 1979, Corning Museum, No. 248.
Triantafyllidis 2000, Nos. 4-7.

CAST AND CUT BOWLS FROM 500BC-400BC

CAST AND CUT BOWLS FROM 500BC-400BC

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Dating: The production of these glass bowls, colorless or pale green to olive green are attributed to the period of the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia (559-330 BC).

Description: The forms of the glass bowls are copied from the Achaemenid silver and bronze shapes. They feature either embossed fluting, rosettes of pointed leaves or lobed designs on both deep and shallow bowls with flaring rims.  The shallower bowls are called phiales.

Technique: The technique of manufacture was possibly the lost-wax casting method using the finest quality glass available. Many of these bowls show signs of being cut on the exterior and also polished on both surfaces.

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The following bowl drawings are from, Early Ancient Glass, Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, David Grose

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Achaemenid Bowls

Metal Prototypes

 

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Achaemenid Glass Bowls

 

RHODIAN CAST MONOCHROME BOWL of  Nico F. Bijnsdorp

(This bowl fits better into the Achaemenid group because it is deeper (3.7 cm) then the shallow phialai bowls.)

Remarks
Shallow cast monochrome bowls with slightly carinated walls at the height of the shoulder and the base of the rim were produced in Rhodian glass workshops from the late 5th century until the third quarter of the 4th century BC (Triantafyllidis). Glasswork from Rhodes in this period was influenced by glassworkers from Persia during the Achaemenid period (ca 550-330 BC) which makes it difficult to define the place of manufacture. The color of the glass, the profile of the bowl and the cutting of the radiating petals are the primary reason for defining the date and place of manufacture of the bowl: Rhodian rather than Persian.

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HELLENISTIC CAST, SLUMPED, CUT GLASS BOWL of David Giles

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Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers

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Getty Villa, side view –

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Getty Villa, bottom view

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The State Hermitage Museum

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Phiale Bowls: Metal Prototypes

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Phiale Glass Bowls

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Toledo Museum of Art

 

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Corning Museum of Glass

 

 

MOLTEN COLOR: GLASSMAKING IN ANTIQUITY

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity, Karol B. Wight, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2011

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The Molten Color exhibition at the Gerry Villa opened in January of 2006 and this book stems directly from that exhibition.  The glass show can be found on the blog at this link. Molten Color at the Getty Villa. The book is 136 pages, smaller size (6.5×8.5 inches) with 96 wonderful color photographs.  Don’t let its smaller size deter you, this book is packed with well written information not only about the objects but also Roman glassmaking in antiquity.

p. 36 Cameo two-handled wine cup (skyphos) Roman 25 BC-AD 25 Preserved H 10.5 x W17.6 x DIAM 10.6 cm JPGM 84.AF.85

p. 60 Core-formed miniature pitcher (oinochoe) Etuscan, 7th C.B.C.H 8.8 cm

p. 65 Perfume flask with applied trail. Roman 1st C. H 7.8x DIAM 6 cm JPGM 2003.420

p. 69 Flask in the form of a fish. Roman, 3rd C. H 8x l 21 cm JPGM 2003.439

p. 88 Mold-blown mythological beaker, Roman 3rd C

p. 98 Rippenschale second half of 1st C. H 6.5 x DIAM cm JPGM 2003.425

Two-piece beaker(one inside the other) Roman, 1st to 2nd C. H 8.2 x DIAM 8.2 cm

 

 

TEN ROMAN GLASS BOWLS

As one of the most versatile of all vessel shapes the bowl was probably the first to have been made by our earliest ancestors.  A bowl is common open-top container used in many cultures to serve food, drinks and for storing other items.  Although other materials such as stone, metal or wood were used to make bowls before and during the Roman period, once glass became popular around the 1^st century glass bowls were manufactured in great abundance.

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The following examples from the Allaire Collection illustrate the many variations in the sizes and shapes of glass bowls created during the Roman period

19R Blown then pinched ribbed Roman bowl

27R Roman glass skyphos with two handles and thumb rests 1st Century

29R Hofheim cup with wheel-cut lines 1st Century

30R Ribbed bowl 1st Century BC

39R Coptic glass bowl 4th Century

59R Pale green cup 2-4th Century

60R Roman bowl with trail 1-2nd Century

61R Small cup (acetabulum) 1st Century

63R Roman bowl with vertical rim 1st Century

65R Roman glass bowl 4th Century

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For additional information on any of the above Roman bowls look up the (R#) in the right hand side search bar. The search bar can also be use to find something on this blog. It is on the right hand column on the opening page.  Depending on your device you have to scroll down to find it.  If on your viewing device (phone) there is no right side column then switch to full view.

 

THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART

As the region’s oldest and largest art museum, the San Diego Museum of Art’s renowned holdings include a fine selection of European old masters, 19th and 20th century American art, an encyclopedic Asian collection, and growing collections of contemporary and Latin American art.

Balboa Park

The San Diego Museum of Art is located in Balboa Park a 1,200 acre urban cultural park with museums, several theaters, walking paths, gardens and zoo in San Diego, California.

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The size of the glass collection is around 415 pieces from Europe, Asia and US.  Below are examples of their Roman glass collection from the Charles P. Douglass collection given to the Museum in 1937.

 

GLASS AT MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK

MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK

The Museum holds archaeological finds from every part of the inhabited world. They range from some of the very oldest – early hominid tools discovered by Louis Leakey in Olduvai Gorge, east Africa – to medieval and post-medieval finds from sites within Cambridge. They include finds from major excavations crucial to the development of archaeological science, such as those conducted by Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho in the Jordan valley, one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the world, and material from Star Carr in Yorkshire, excavated by Grahame Clark over 1949-51. MAA holds one of the finest pre-Columbian collections in Britain, including remarkably preserved early textiles; important prehistoric Arctic materials; wide-ranging collections relating to early research in southern Africa, on rock art among other topics; and – of special interest to Cambridge communities – finds from major Roman cemeteries at Great Chesterford and Litlington, as well as many other prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon finds from the city and region. (Museum description from maa web site at: http://maa.cam.ac.uk/)

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Most of the Ancient glass can be seen at Clarke Hall: Archaeology of Cambridge 

Clarke Hall

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GLASS AT THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE UK

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK

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Fitzwilliam Museum’s glass collection comprises over 1000 pieces. The oldest glass objects in the Department of Applied Arts are beads from the Warring States Period (5th-3rd centuries B.C.) in China. Apart from this, most of the Far Eastern collection of glass comes from the 18th and 19th centuries, and comprises a variety of objects including bowls, jars and bottles. Other significant medieval and early-modern collections of glass include Middle Eastern glass vessels from Syria, Egypt and Persia and late medieval European stained glass. The museum also houses a collection of fine cristallo glass from Venice and Continental Europe as well as later lead-glass drinking glasses and decanters from England. Through the generous gifts of benefactors such as Nicholas and Judith Goodison, the museum also boasts an impressive collection of studio glass. (Description and some of the pictures below taken from museum’s web site.)  http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/

This is also a wonderful and beautiful general art museum a must visit when in Cambridge.

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ROMAN GREEN GLASS BOWL

From the collection of: Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen

Origin: Probably Egypt, Karanis, ~ end 2^nd, early 3^rd century AD.

Remarks: A rather rare hemispherical bowl made from green glass. The bowl has a splayed out and upward turned everted rim. The typical flaring base-ring seems to be formed from the same parison. This type of bowl is also shown in fresco’s like the ones in Pompeii, Villa Oplontis, or in mosaic work and then filled with fruits. See Naumann-Steckner “Zerbrechlicher Luxus” pg. 47. There are pictures of even larger ones sometimes filled with glassware. See ie. “Tout feu tout sable, pg. 168/169. The shape of these bowls is mostly based on the Terra-Sigillata ones, see ie.: “Zerbrechlicher Luxus, pg. 46. It’s quite understandable that not too many of these bowls survived as these were kind of common tableware.

Dimensions: H = 7 cm.; largest ø 17,7 cm.; ø bowl 14 cm.; ø foot 6 cm.; weight 135,1 grams.

Parallels (ao.): Arts, a collection of ancient glass 500 BC – 500 AD, pg. 67 nr. 63,Foy & Nenna, Tout feu, tout sable, pg. 168-169, nr. 251, (some resemblance), Zabern von, Römisches Glaskunst und Wandmalerei, pg.26, Saldern von, Sammlung Hentrich, pg. 124 nr. 161, Oliver, Ancient glass in the Carnegie museum, Pittsburg, pg. 91 nr. 132, somewhat larger but almost the same, Gorny & Mosch, auction nr. 194, 14-12-2010, nr. 60; auction nr. 243, 2016 nr. 363, auction nr. 248, 30-06-2017, nr. 440, Castello Viscontea, Locarno, in one of the display cabinets, nr.12, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, acc. 24.2.39.

Provenance: By previous owner acquired from the trade on 15-03-1997, old collection sticker ar.38, Acquired from the estate of the deceased owner Cl., 11-02-2017.

THE ERETZ ISRAEL MUSEUM-GLASS PAVILION

Photos and Suggested Post by  Hans van Rossum

The Eretz Israel Glass Pavilion is part of the Eretz Museum in Tel Aviv. The Pavilion takes the visitors on a unique journey through time, traveling back thousands of years to the earliest days of glassmaking. The exhibition is divided into three sections, representing three eras in the history of glass production: pre-blown glass (Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic period—15th-1st centuries BCE), blown glass of the Roman and Byzantine periods (1st–7th centuries CE); and blown glass of the Islamic period (7th–15th centuries CE). Two rare vessels on display are a delicate drinking horn with two openings, known by its Greek name “rhyton”, and “Ennion’s Blue Jug” bearing the signature of its maker, who lived in the first half of the 1st century CE. Most of the glass was donated from a private collection of Dr. Walter Moses, who founded the Eretz Israel Museum in 1958, this rare and beautiful assemblage of glass has been enhanced over the years by exciting new acquisitions and significant donations. Among the unique features are fragile relics of glass dating from biblical times, as well as some of the earliest blown glass discovered from the Roman period. One of the most impressive collections of Ancient (Roman) Glass of the world, exhibited in a fascinating architectural building. Link to Eretz Museum in Tel Aviv & link to Glass Pavilion

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HELLENISTIC GOLD-BAND ALABASTRON

Hellenistic Gold-band Alabastron of Nico F. Bijnsdorp

Date: Late 1st century BC – early 1st century AD. Eastern Mediterranean. Size: H: 14.3 cm. Dmax: 1.9 cm. Drim: 1.5 cm. Weight: 53 gr.

Classification: Oliver JGS 1967: characteristics of both types A and B.

Condition: Intact. Few hardly visible fissures. Weathering and iridescence.

Technique: Rodformed, fused and pinched/tooled to create the wavy pattern. Possibly polished.

Description: Translucent glass in various colors. Canes or strips of colorless sandwiched gold leaf glass, translucent turquoise, medium blue, yellow-brown and amethyst colored glass fused together and tooled into a wavy pattern. Cylindrical body with straight, upward tapering walls and convex pointed bottom. Ground and bevelled interior rim allowing to insert a removable neck piece.

Remarks: In JGS 1967 Andrew Oliver Jr. discussed and catalogued this type of alabastron and divided it into types A and B. This division was not based on age or rarity but purely on differences in style. Group A has a tall, slender body with a very slight taper. Group B is smaller with a more pronounced taper and the colored bands are narrower, more numerous and more tightly wound. This alabastron has characteristics of both types. The pattern of the colored bands seems to relate to group A but the flecks of gold leaf appears exclusively in the colorless glass, which is typical for group B. It is much longer than examples in group B and comparable to the small example in group A. It is without the pronounced taper of group B but is not so pointed at the tip as one would expect in group A. Two renowned experts/authors of ancient glass have examined the alabastron and given their opinion in written reports.

Provenance: David Aaron Ancient Arts, London, UK., Private Dutch collection, 1980’s.

Published: Dr. Fischer Kunstauktionen 24-09-2011, No. 2.

Reference: Goldstein 1979, The Corning Museum, No. 584., Stern 1994, Ernesto Wolf Collection, No. 88., Miho 2001, The Miho Museum, No. 124., Tait 1991, The British Museum, p. 57., Saldern et al. 1974, Erwin Oppenländer Collection, No. 270., Wight 2011, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Fig. 29., The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number 17.194.284., The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, accession number 1941.1099., The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 98.938.