DESCRIPTION: Roman unguentarium of amber-yellow glass with opaque milk-white trailing that has been marvered flush with the vessel's surface. The vessel's body is spherical with a slightly concave flattened base without a pontil mark, a tubular neck tapering towards the top, and a rim that folds outward and has been rounded and thickened at the edge. From the base to the rim runs a white spiral trail that makes multiple revolutions and has been dragged up and down six or seven times to create a festoon pattern. The vessel has been expertly reassembled from a few large fragments; very stable and otherwise intact.

PROVENANCE: Formerly in a Welsh private collection formed between the 1970s and 2008.

PUBLISHED: Bonhams, London, ANTIQUITIES, 29 April, 2009, Lot #302, listed and illustrated on Page 174.

COMPARISONS: E. Marianne Stern, Roman, Byzantine and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE-700 CE, Ernesto Wolf Collection, 2001, Cat. Numbers 2, 3 & 4 for closely related examples. Also, Yael Israeli, Wonders of Ancient Glass at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1998, page 26 for several related examples.