Blue Roman Glass Unguentarum

Blue Roman Glass Unguentarum of Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen

 Description: Small unguentarium made from opaque blue glass with opaque white filaments to give the object the impression as if made from agate. The white opaque threads start from the bottom and spiral up into the corpus of the object and then kind of fade into the wide corpus and the neck of the object imitating agate.

Remarks: The main shape is a flattened sphere narrowing down to a cylindrical neck ending at a very simply worked spout being folded outward-inward. The form and shape makes this object quite elegant and may have adorned the dressing tables of Roman ladies, other ladies later on and show cases of collectors.

Origin: Middle-East 1^st century AC, could be from Alexandria

Dimensions: Largest ø 5,3 cm.;  ­ 6 cm.; neck ­  3 cm.; rim ø 1,8 cm.; weight 25, 6 grams.

Parallels (ao): – Baume La Peter, Glas der Antiken Welt I, Köln, Tafel 57, nr. 15.1,- Metropolitan Museum NY, acc. nr. 74.51.186, without the agate effect,- Matheson, Ancient Glass in the Yale University art gallery, pg. 26 nr. 71- Neuburg, Antikes Glas, pag.64/65 Farbtafel VII, nr. b,- Saldern von, Sammlung Oppenländer, pg. 129 en 137 nr. 350, pg.129/130 nr. 348,- Doppelfeld, Römisches und Frankisches Glas in Köln, pict. 12,- Arveiller-Dulong & Nenna, les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre, nr. 824, same color, however, with a more spherical body.

Provenance:- Old Israeli collection of which the name upon request of the previous owner is not revealed.- Archeological Center Tel-Aviv, auction nr. 60, lot nr. 211