Roman Glass Jar with Trailing

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Roman Glass Jar with Trailing
CULTURE / REGION OF ORIGIN: Roman Syria/Palestine
DATE: Late 4th – 5th Century CE
DIMENSIONS: 7.0 cm tall (2.7 in.) and 6.4 cm wide at the rim (2.5 in.)

DESCRIPTION: Intact. A Roman jar of light green, transparent glass. The vessel has a somewhat squat, rounded body, narrowing from the shoulder to a constricted neck and widening again to a splayed mouth. The rim was probably made separately and applied. The vessel has heavy zigzag trailing in the same color glass applied to the shoulder and rim, forming a freestanding “cage” of glass around the vessel’s neck. The trailing touches both the rim and shoulder with 10 upward and 10 downward strokes, with one of the upward stokes not quite reaching the rim. The trail of glass seems to have been applied from left to right.The base has a sharp, indented pontil mark. There is some minor encrustation, particularly in protected areas behind the trailing and on the neck, and a few patches of very thin iridescence.

PROVENANCE: Ex Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, May 22, 2005, Lot # 1482. Previously in a West Coast private collection.

COMPARISONS: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston website (www.mfa.org/collections/search) for a remarkably similar example also in pale green glass, nearly exactly the same size (7.2 cm tall) with nearly identical trailed collar, Accession number 35.1427. Also, E. Marianne Stern, Roman, Byzantine and Early Medieval Glass, Ernesto Wolf Collection, Germany, 2001, Cat No. 120 for a very similar vessel, except with the body and trailing in contrasting colors. Also, Ancient Glass from the Holy Land, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Israel Antiquities Authority, 1998, Plate 20 for a very similar vessel with both the body and applied trailing in brownish glass.

Item #CA-06-24

Price $675.00