CHAIN TRAILING ON ROMAN GLASS
Chain trailing is one of many variations in style and art used to decorate glasses to improve their function and beauty. Many of these variations have been used through out the history of glassmaking.
Chain trailing is a pattern of applied decoration where intersecting threads are laid on the body of the vessel resembling links of a chain (sometimes called spectacle decoration). Glassmakers have used this style of decoration since Roman times. It seems to have been most popular in Middle Eastern manufacturing areas during late Roman & Byzantine periods.
The following pictures show examples from the Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen collection, Hans van Rossum collection and Allaire collection, to illustrate various styles of chain decoration.
BYZANTIUM FLASK of Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen
LATE ROMAN SMALL DECORATED FLASK of Hans van Rossum
DECORATED JUGLET of Hans van Rossum
Roman Glass Aryballos
18R Roman Glass Aryballos18R
This two-handled globular flask was used for carrying oil to the public baths during the first centuries of the Roman Empire. Many of the remaining examples still have the bronze rings or chains attached to the handles. This example is not typical of the more common heavy aryballoi, but is thinly blown and has a delicacy which is enhanced by its fine proportions and silvery weathering.
H: 7.5 cm
Late First or Second Century
Ref: Pittsburg #123, Paris Sale #277
ROMAN SNAKE-THREAD GLASS VESSEL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Date: Late second to third century A.D. Size: H. 19.5 cm D.9.2 cm
Remarks: The body of this object was blown with foot and trails applied. This object is said to have been found in Koblenz, Germany. It was acquired by The British Museum at auction in London in 1982. Numerous examples of the same type have been found in Cologne.
Bibliography: Glass of the Caears 1987, p. 132 no. 61. and, Whitehouse-Reflecting Antiquity, David Whitehouse, 2007 p. 215 no. 106 Snake-Thread Vessel
ROMAN GLASS SPRINKLER BOTTLE WITH TWO HANDLES
SPRINKLER BOTTLE WITH TWO HANDLES of Hans van Rossum
Date: 4th century AD | Found: in the surrounding area of Sebaste (Samaria-Israel) Size: ↑12.5 cm | ø 7.5 cm | Weight 100 g
Technique: Body pattern-blown, neck and rim free blown; handles applied
Description: Transparent amber glass, pear-shaped body, cylindrical neck, tooled diaphragm with a hole at the base of the neck. Rim folded inward. Two looped handles of pale green glass, applied to the shoulder, drawn up and attached to edge of rim, snapped off. Body decorated with swirling ribs, curving from upper left to lower right. Indented base. Pontil mark.
Condition: Intact, some slightly incrustation
Provenance: Jerusalem art market, Jerusalem 2005
Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen(active link) (NL), Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit, exp. no. 159, 29 April – 28 August 2011
Reference: Eretz Israel Museum(active link) – the Glass Pavilion – Tel Aviv for an identical example in green glass
TWO BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLES OF ROMAN GLASS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM
A small speckled blown glass jar and a jug with embedded opaque white and blue blobs. The speckles on the jar are proud and so must have been picked up on the gather towards the end of the manufacturing process. The jar is said to come from Pozzuoli near Naples, in Campania (Italy) where both were probably made in the first half of the 1st century AD. The height of the jug is 13.4 cm.
This information was taken from the book: Tait-Glass 5000 Years, Edited Hugh Tait, New York 1991 p. 66
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART ROMAN GLASS COLLECTIONS
ROMAN GLASS COLLECTIONS
The following are overviews and closeups of one the finest Roman glass collections in the World. Click on the pictures to enlarge and on Esc to return to this page.
Below are overviews of all the ancient Roman glass cases at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (click on the pictures to expand)
ROMAN GLASS OINOCHOE
Date: Late 1st century B.C. – 1st century A.D.
Location: Metropolitan Art Museum, Gift of Pierpont Morgan 1917 (17.194.170
Remarks: This very important and beautiful elegant jug, whose shape imitates that of a metal vessel, shows how quickly the newly founded Roman glass industry mastered its medium. It represents a transitional phase in glassmaking, when casting, cutting and blowing techniques were used. The jug’s handle was cold-carved and the base was cut on a lathe, but the body seems to have been blown. A similar combination of techniques is found on some examples of early Roman cameo glass, notably the British Museum’s Portland Vase.
The techniques casting, cutting and blowing used to make this jug along with its unusual opaque blue color makes it very rare. Below are two other vessels with these similar properties on this blog.
ROMAN OPAQUE BLUE GLASS JUG of Nico F. Bijnsdorp (active link)
OPAQUE BLUE ROMAN GLASS BUD VASE of David Giles (active link)
ROMAN SPLASH GLASS ARYBALLOS
SPLASH GLASS ARYBALLOS of David Giles
Date: Roman 1st Century AD
Size: 9.7cm high
Description: The color of the glass aryballos is aubergine with splashes of white, blue and yellow glass.
Condition: Intact.
THIN-WALLED ‘SPLASHED’ ARYBALLOS
ROMAN THIN-WALLED ‘SPLASHED GLASS’ ARYBALLOS of Hans van Rossum
ROMAN THIN-WALLED ‘SPLASHED GLASS’ ARYBALLOS
Mid-1st century AD | Eastern Mediterranean or Italy
Size↑6.5 cm | ø 4.5 cm | Weight 26 g
Technique: Free blown, picked-up opaque white chips; handles applied
Classification: Barag 1970, vol. 2, pl. 37, type 9.1
Description: Aryballos of thin translucent blue glass with flecks of opaque white color, this so called splashed glass is a much more elaborate and earlier product than the well- known aryballoi. This oil flask has a globular body resting on a flattened base, a cylindrical neck. The rim folded outward, downward, upward and inward to form a collar-like rim. Two handles applied on the shoulder, drawn up and attached to the neck. The handles in translucent light blue glass. The bottle as a whole decorated with random ”splashes” of opaque white glass. No pontil mark.
Condition: It is difficult to determine whether the body has some very fine hairline cracks, or that this is due to the composition of the splashed glass. (Craquelé)
Remarks: These splashes were produced by rolling a bubble of (blue) glass over a marver covered with shards and chips of colored (white) glass. The bubble of glass mixed with the shards and chips would then have been reheated to make it ready for blowing. The chips melt flush with the surface and change shape when the glass expands; round at the greatest diameter, elongated vertical in the neck. ”It has been suggested that this technique may have been developed to imitate the more costly mosaic glass. An exceptional example of a rare technique of decorating ancient glass. Many of these glasses are found in the Aegean area and in South-Russia.” (Whitehouse 1997) On the backside of the stand a brown-colored paper label with the following text: ”Amphora, röm. Kaizerzeit 1 Jh post – OP S 141 rejo’’.
Provenance: Auktionshaus Cologne, Germany, Private collection, Cologne; acquired in the 1950s, thence by descent
Published: Romeins Glas uit particulier bezit, J. van der Groen & H. van Rossum 2011, p. 98
De Oude Flesch, no. 121, 2010, p. 22. Vormen uit Vuur no. 220 (2013), p. 21
Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen (NL), Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit, no. 166
29 April – 28 August 2011
Reference: The Benzian Collection of Ancient and Islamic Glass, Sotheby’s London 7 July 1994 lot 134
Römische Kleinkunst Sammlung Karl Löffler, P. La Baume – J.W. Salomonson no. 18, inv. no. 181
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