ROMAN GLASS ARYBALLOS WITH CHAIN & STOPPER

ARYBALLOS WITH CHAIN AND STOPPER of Hans van Rossum

2H Roman glass aryballos with chain & stopper Second half of 1st century AD | Eastern Mediterranean, probably Asia Minor Size↑7.3 cm | (body) ø 7.0 cm | Weight 188 g

Roman glass aryballos with chain & stopper

Second half of 1st century AD | Eastern Mediterranean, probably Asia Minor Size↑7.3 cm | (body) ø 7.0 cm | Weight 188 g

Technique: Free blown, handles and bronze acc. applied

Classification: See Isings 1957 form 61 | Morin-Jean type handles θ, Sorokina 1987 fig. 1-8 (rim), type C6 (handles)

Description: Transparent bluish-green glass aryballos, globular body, round base and short neck; triangle-shaped mouth, rim folded outward, downward, upward and inward. Two glass handles applied on the shoulder, drawn up and down forming a circular hole; handles attached to the shoulder again by using a hand-held tool; bronze looped carrying handle in form of inverted U; the handle attached to two bronze rings which pass through the two glass handles. The bronze rings made by bending length of wire into circle held in place by twisting the overlapping ends. A bronze chain attached to one of the rings and connected to a bronze stopper. No pontil mark. Exceedingly rare.

Condition: Perfect condition, small part of rim restored

Remarks: Greek and Roman athletes carried aryballoi filled with oil to clean their bodies after the exercises by applying the oil together with fine sand on their skin to absorb the dirt and then scraping it with a strigil.

Provenance: Collection C. A. Hessing, Laren (NL) 1998, formed in the 1990s, collection number 74
Private collection Axel Weber Cologne, acquired in the 1970s Private collection Rhineland
Published: Romeins Glas uit particulier bezit, J. van der Groen & H. van Rossum 2011, p. 96 De Oude Flesch, no. 124 p. 14 & no. 121 p. 22 Newspaper De Telegraaf, 27 May 2011, p. T13 Vormen uit Vuur no. 220 (2013), p. 17 Glass Circle News, Issue 133, Vol. 36 no. 3, 2013.

Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen (NL), Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit, exp. no. 171.
29 April – 28 August 2011. Museum Simon van Gijn Dordrecht (NL), February 2004. Allard Pierson Museum A’dam (NL), de Kunst van het Vuur, exp. no. 44. 17 May – 16 September 2001.

Reference: Les Verres Antiques du Musée du Louvre II, V. Arveiller – Dulong & M.D. Nenna no. 639.
Gallo-Romeins Museum at Tongeren (B) for an identical example, not described in the book of M. Vanderhoeven 1962. A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC – 500 AD, P.L.W. Arts no. 46. Verres Antiques et de l’Islam, Ancienne Collection de Monsieur D(emeulenaere) no. 223.