PICTORIAL ESSAY OF GLASS RING BEAKERS 16TH-19TH C

The ring-beaker started as a type of German beaker (Ringelbecher) decorated with attached glass loops from which are suspended glass rings.  They where made in Europe and England.  Click on the pictures below to enlarged them.

Corning Museum of Glass German ring beaker 17th C. or earlier

Art Institute of Chicago Wald glass ring beaker 16th C. or later

Museum in Dusseldorf Wald glass ring beaker 16th C.

National Museum of American History Wald glass ring beaker 16th C. or later.

Wald glass ring beaker 16th C. published in Glinsterend Glas by Jet Pijzel-Domisse (Author), Titus M. Elins

German Ring Goblet 1620 C. of Allaire Collection #101E

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Ring Goblet 17th C.

Corning Museum of Glass prob. German 17th C.

Venetian Wine glass with rings, 16th-17th C The Van Beek collection

Germany Ring Beaker 17th C.

The Getty Center in Los Angeles early 17th C.

Ring Beaker 17th C. Christie’s Auction House

Hentrich Glass Museum in Düsseldorf German 17th C.

Hentrich Glass Museum in Düsseldorf German 17th C.

Three ring beakers 17th C. from Glinsterend Glas by Jet Pijzel-Domisse (Author), Titus M. Elins

Ring beaker 17th C. from Harold E. Henkes book Glass without Gloss

Museum of London Ring Beaker 17th C.

Corning Museum of Glass German ring beaker 17th C,

Corning Museum of Glass German ring beaker 17th C.

Corning Museum of Glass German ring beaker 17th C.

Art Institute of Chicago glass ring beaker 17th C.

Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague Footed Beaker with rings, Bohemian

British Museum prob. France late 17th C.

Corning Museum of Glass Facon de Venise Ring beaker prob. 17th C. or later

unknown collection

WHAT IS THE IRIDESCENCE ON ANCIENT GLASS ?

What is iridescence on ancient glass?

 The iridescence on ancient glass was unintentional unlike what is found on modern Tiffany, Loetz, and Steuben glass. Caused by weathering on the surface, the iridescence, and the interplay of lustrous, changing colors, is due to the refraction of light by thin layers of weathered glass. How much a glass object weathers depends mainly on burial conditions and to a lesser extent the chemistry of it. These conditions are humidity, heat and type of soil the glass was buried in. The chemistry of ancient glass, though basically the same as our soda glass, differed in the purity of raw materials and compositional ratio.  There were also differences in flux alkali used such as natron (sodium carbonate) or potash (potassium carbonate). Generally glass made in the Western Provinces with potash has less iridescence than glass from the Eastern Mediterranean areas using natron. At the same time burial conditions also were different. Natural iridescence is sometimes found on modern glass bottles from digs in the back yards of old houses or pulled out of river beds. The word iridescence comes from Iris, the Greek Goddess of rainbows and refers to rainbow-like colors seen on the glass which changes in different lighting.  It is simply caused by alkali (soluble salt) being leached from the glass by slightly acidic water and then forming fine layers that eventually separate slightly or flake off causing a prism effect on light bouncing off and passing through the surface which reflects light differently, resulting in an iridescent appearance. Another type of iridescence can form on the inside of a vessel called patina (see 23R below). Modern iridescence sometimes called iris glass is made by adding metallic compounds to the glass or by spraying the surface with stannous chloride (SnCl₂) or lead chloride (PbCl₂)  and reheating in an annealing oven in a reducing atmosphere. A reducing atmosphere is produced in a fuel fired annealing oven by reducing the draft and depriving the kiln of oxygen or adding carbon monoxide, nitrogen to replace to oxygen in the kiln. . 

Examples below illustrate ancient glass from the Allaire Collection with natural iridescence.

24R Roman double balsamarium 4-5th C

12R Piriform unguentarium 1st Century

19R Blown ribbed bowl 1st Century H: 6 cm, D: 8 cm

9R Roman mold-blown perfume bottle 3-4th Century

46R Roman tall-neck bottle 2-3rd Century 19.7 cm

32R Roman candlestick balsamarium 2-3rd Century 18.5 cm

23R Roman Zig Zag Pitcher 4th Century

4R Roman cylindrical bottle 3rd Century 9.8 cm

ROMAN GLASS PITCHER WITH ZIG-ZAG TRAILING AND IRIDESCENCE

23R Roman glass pitcher of Allaire Collection

  Date: 4th century  Size: 9 cm

Remarks:It was during the period in 4^th Century that turquoise decoration gained popularity.  The example shown here is an excellent representation of how it was most commonly implemented.  This zig-zag design was further accented by making the handle and applied collar ring from the same turquoise glass. The pitcher was made of light green glass which has weathered internally over the ages to this almost gold patina a type of iridescence. Link to What is iridescence? (active link)

Ref: Hans Cohn #50, Boston #58

COMPLIMENTARY PAIR OF ROMAN GLASS VESSELS

–

Complimentary Pair of Roman Glass Vessels of Hans van Rossum

 

TALL AMPHORA

Date: 4th century AD | Eastern Mediterranean Size: ↑22.5 cm | ø 4.6 cm | Weight: 84 g

 

Technique: Body pattern-blown, neck and mouth free blown; handles and coil applied

Condition: Intact and almost clear, excellent condition

Description: Transparent pale yellow glass, tall elongated conical body with mold-blown vertical ribbing, outplayed and fire rounded rim, pale yellow coil wound around underside of mouth. Long cylindrical neck with a thick pale green glass coil around middle of neck. Two bifurcated handles of transparent green glass applied on shoulder, drawn up and attached to neck, one just above and one on the coil ring; one at right angle and one angular.

Provenance: Formerly part of collection Avi Koren, owner of a well-known real estate office in Jerusalem, prior to 2002.

Remarks: This type of vessel may have been used to store wine sauce (caroenum), which was a popular ingredient for many Roman recipes. It seems quite likely that the same glass worker who produced this vessel also made HVR 196. Both glass items were sold by Archaeological Center Tel Aviv-Israel during an auction, held on 24 September 2002; lot numbers 148 &149. There are several similar characteristics which confirm that both glasses must be made by the same glass worker, as there are: the use of exactly the same pale yellow and pale green glass for both items. The identical mold-blown rib decoration is also such a characteristic but the most impressive similarity is the way in which the glass worker formed both handles different; each glass vessel has one handle exactly at right angle and the other as an angular handle. These two glasses were also found together, which is special. The last characteristic of these two vessels is the way in which the glass worker, on an extremely unusual way, pinched a fold in the glass-rest which is attached to the neck. Both glass objects were part of the collection of Avi Koren, Jerusalem. Conclusion: both glasses were blown by the same glass worker.

Remarks II: A striking parallel of this amphora was found in July 1934, in a 4th century tomb in Beit Fajjar, 25 km. south of Jerusalem. This example has the same characteristics as HVR 082  and the one, part of the RMO Collection, inv. no. B 1899/5.5. It makes part of the collection of the Palestine Archaeological Museum. It may be possible that the glass worker of these specific amphoras was situated in the area of Jerusalem.

Published: Archaeological Center Tel Aviv, auction 28, 24 September 2002 lot 148

Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen (NL), Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit, exp. no. 107, 29 April – 28 August 2011

Reference: RMO Leiden, inv. no. B 1899/5.5 for a striking parallel with an identical shape and height. Probably a product from the same workshop. Archaeological Center Tel Aviv, auction 40, 4 April 2007 lot 635 for a striking similarity in pale green glass, A Collection of Ancient Glass 500 BC – 500 AD,  P. L. W. Arts no.  67, Glas der Antiken Welt I, P. La Baume no. D77, Tafel 34, Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery, S. B. Matheson nos. 236 & 237

  –                

 

BOTTLE

Date: 4th century AD | Eastern Mediterranean Size: ↑13.2 cm | ø 8.2 cm |Weight: 79 g

 

Technique: Body pattern-blown, neck and mouth free blown; handle and coil applied

Condition: Intact, excellent condition

Description: Transparent pale yellow glass. Squat globular body, decorated with faint diagonal ribbing and nine vertical indentations. Tall neck widening towards body, a thick pale green glass coil around middle of neck. Everted mouth with rounded rim and a thin pale yellow coil wound around underside of mouth. Two opposite handles applied on shoulder, drawn up and attached to neck, under and finally tooled over neck coil, one handle at right angle and one handle angular. Indented base with rest of pontil.

Provenance: Collection Nico F. Bijnsdorp (NL), collection no. NFB 131 (2002-2015) Formerly part of collection Avi Koren, owner of a well-known real estate office in Jerusalem, prior to 2002.

Remarks: See information of HVR 082, pp. 310. After a divorce of about fifteenth years, these two glasses, product of the same glass worker, were reunited again in July 2015.

Published: Romeins Glas in particulier bezit, J. van der Groen & H. van Rossum 2011, p. 61 Archaeological Center Tel Aviv, auction 28, 24 September 2002 lot 149

Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen (NL), Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit, exp. no. 108, 29 April – 28 August 2011

Reference: Bonhams London, auction 12 December 1996 lot 85, without indentations Gläser der Antike, Sammlung Oppenländer, A. von Saldern no 491

SINGLE LOOPED HANDLE ROMAN GLASS PITCHER

31R Single Handle Pitcher of Allaire Collection

31R Single Handle Pitcher 1st C

 

Remark: The natural color of blue-green glass used on this delicate pitcher has virtually no weathering and appears as it would have looked just after being manufactured in the First Century.  The simple ovoid body is accented by a ring base.  The precise looped handle is beautifully executed with thin ribs and double fold-over at the mouth.

Height: 13 cm

Date: First Century

Ref: Ancient Collection De Monsieur D Auction Paris 1985 #477 & 478, Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection, Nina Kunina, 1997 #143

Click on this link below to see additional looped handle Roman glass pitcher on this site and use the back arrows on your browser to return to this post.

69R Roman Jug with Looped Handle 4th C

TWIN-LOOPED HANDLE BOTTLE from Egypt, Karanis

 

TRAILED ROMAN GLASS JUG WITH LOOP HANDLE 69R of Allaire Collection active link

TWIN-LOOPED BOTTLE of Hans van Rossum active link

SPANISH GLASS HOLY WATER STOUP

In Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and some other religious organizations holy water that has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism is used for the blessing of persons, places, and objects. As a reminder of their baptism in some Catholic churches, Christians dip their fingers in the holy water and make the sign of the cross when entering the church. Holy water is kept in a font, which is typically located at the entrance to a church (or sometimes in a separate room or building called a baptistery). A font is a receptacle in a church for the holy water used in baptism, typically a freestanding stone structure.  The stoup is a smaller vessel for holy water, usually placed on a wall near the entrance of the small church or chapel. Stoups are made of many different materials including glass. Glass stoups were popular in Spain and the Low Countries in the 18th Century for churches and  private homes which had a chapel in them.

To see an addition stoup on this blog click on this active link (100E).  To get back to this page use the back arrow on your browser.

–

28E Spanish Glass Holy water Stoup in The Allaire Collection

Date: 18th Century

Height: 24 cm

Ref: Hermitage-Spanish Glass in the Hermitage, 1970 #34, #16

COLORFUL ANCIENT GLASS

Shortly after the discovery of how to make glass, workers began using coloring agents to make their vessels and decorating them.  In some cases, to improve aesthetics they chose contrasting glass colors to show off the handles or to display decorative trailing. During the manufacture of a vessel and while it was still hot the maker dropped a molten glob of glass upon the body where it was drawn out into  patterns or applied as a handle.  Polychrome and strongly colored glass were common throughout the Roman period in the glass-making industry.

The following pictures show examples from the Allaire collection and the private collectors on this blog to illustrate various styles of brightly colored vessels and those decorated with contrasting colors of glass. All of these examples are from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods.

Click on the photo to enlarge. To read the write-up for each glass vessel click on the active link on the name of the individual collector.  This will take you to each collector’s page. Once you are on their page scroll down until you find the glass you are interested in and then click the title above the picture.  This will take you to the write-up.  To get back to this page use the back arrow on your browser.

 

The Allaire Collection of Roman Glass

 

Hans van Rossum Collection

 

The Augustinus Collection of Ancient Glass

David Giles Collection

Nico F. Bijnsdorp Collection

 

The Windmill Collection of Roman Glass

 

Joop van der Groen Collection

 

Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen Collection

MEROVINGIAN GLASS GLOBULAR BEAKER WITH LOOPED TRAILS

127E of Allaire Collection Merovingian Globular Beaker with Looped Trails

127E Merovingian beaker with looped trailing view A 6th-7th C. AD

127E Merovingian beaker with looped trailing view B 6th-7th C. AD

–

Date: 6th-7th C. AD         Size: H 6.0 cm, D 9.5 cm

 

Description: Globular beaker, with a rounded profile has a constricted neck, everted rim, and a pushed-in stable base. A form that occurred frequently in Anglo-Saxon England and Merovingian France from the late sixth to the seventh century.  This vessel is a pale greenish yellow globular beaker having a tall incurved neck with horizontal trailing at the top and vertical looped trails below. These vertical looped trials applied half way up the bowl and continue around the base and onto the bottom of the vessel.

Condition: Masterly repaired using mostly original shards.

Ref:Memoires de Verre de L’Archeologie a L’Art Contemporain, Catherine Vaudour, 2009  P. 38 #65,   Verrres De Champagne P. 56 #115,  P. 53  Fig. 30,  P. 112 Fig.65,  Glass of Four Millennia  Martine Newby 2000,  p. 26,   Les Verres Merovingiens, Tresors de Wallonie, Musee Ourthe-Ambleve, Comblain-au-Pont, 1993, P. 118, #29

–

Similar globular beakers  found in museums and other collections

The Cuddesdon bowl Anglo-Saxon 7th C found at Cuddesdon in Oxforshire

Bonhams Auction House

Metopolitan Museum of Art

Metopolitan Museum of Art

Metopolitan Museum of Art

MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK

unknown collection

Metopolitan Museum of Art

 

 

 

SMALL MEROVINGIAN BEAKER WITH FESTOONS

125E of Allaire Collection Merovingian Beaker with Festoons

 

Description: Pale bluish-green glass beaker was shaped by blowing into an open mold.  The decoration features self-trails applied and tooled into a festoon pattern, a common design used on glass vessels of the Migration Period.  At the rim a slight flare is present with a cracked-off edge. Intact, some weathering.  In the collection there is another beaker like this one with a larger bowl. i See it below and at #124E(active link).

 Date: 5th C. AD

Size: H 6.0 cm, D 9.5 cm

 Ref: Hans Cohn Collection #111, Vaudour-Memoires de Verre de L’Archeologie a L’Art Contemporain, Catherine Vaudour, 2009 #67, and #68, Price-Glass in Britain and Ireland AD 350-1100, Edited by Jennifer Price, British Museum Occasional Paper# 1272000 p. 201 Colour Pl. 1

 

 

125E  Smaller Merovingian Beaker with Festoons,  124E Larger Merovingian Beaker with Festoons

CARROT SHAPED ROMAN GLASS PITCHER

–

CARROT SHAPED PITCHER

of

The Augustinus Collection of Ancient Glass

–

AcoaG # 8.6 |1st. half of 4th. century A.D.  | H: 13.65 cm  W: Rim: 3.85 / 3.00 cm  D: shoulder 4,05 cm|

Acoag 8.1 kopie

AcoaG 8.2 kopie

AcoaG 8.5

–

Technique: Free blown body; mouth outsplayed and pinched to form trefoil; rounded rim; handle drawn up from shoulder to the rim, small amount of excess glass drawn back and pushed under the rim.

Description: Carrot shaped oinochoé with thin wall; attached handle; made of transluscent greenish white glass; some silvery iridescence; light weathering; sandy encrustation,

Condition: Broken and repaired with a small proportion missing.

Remarks: ‘Pitchers of this kind appear to be scarce’, according to M. Stern. ‘The form does not occur among  palestinian finds, therefore probably syrian.’ This jug however is said to have been found in or near the oppidum of Noviomagus, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Provenance:  From a private dutch collection. Previously unpublished.

Parallels: Fondation Custodia Paris, inv. 4101., British Museum: inv. 1911/4.4/8 from Aleppo., RGZ Mainz inv. 0.6676., Israel Museum, 2003, no. 212., Royal Ontario Museum, 1975, no.286., Dos and Bertie Winkel Collection, 2017: DOS98

Reference in description: Hayes, 1975, p. 79, no: 286., Auth, 1976, p. 103, no: 115., Stern, 1977, Fondation Custodia, p. 106-107, no 32., Whitehouse, 1997, CMG vol I, p. 190-101, no 335.