Lot 52
Roman, Imperial period, ca. 1st century CE. A stunning mosaic glass pyxis with both the lid and the cylindrical body formed from glass canes of various colors - spring green, rose pink, cobalt blue, violet purple, wine red, and sky blue - with some overlapping to create various shades as well as golden and fiery iridescence providing a glistening rainbow effect. The lid fits perfectly and has a handy near-spherical knob. Size: 2.125" in diameter x 3" H (including lid) (5.4 cm x 7.6 cm)
According to the curatorial team at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Small bottles and lidded pyxides (boxes) in mosaic and luxury gold-band glass were made during the Julio-Claudian period. But as glass-blowing became more widespread during the mid-1st century, they were quickly supplanted by free-blown versions, often in more transparent glass that allowed one to see the contents." (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/245723)
See Whitehouse, D. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol.1, New York, 1997, item 55 for technique (formerly Ray Winfield Smith Collection); and for similar examples see Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, accession number: 47.76; and Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number: 91.1.1335a, b; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number: 99.454a-b. 107 grams, 72mm (2 3/4).
Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-collection of Martin Wunsch, New York, USA, acquired in the 1980s; ex-Christopher Sheppard collection, London, England, United Kingdom, acquired in the 1980s; ex-Gawain McKinley collection, London, England, United Kingdom, acquired in the 1980s
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#143469
- Condition: Lid and body repaired from multiple pieces with a few chips to the rims and expected jagged edges. Some normal pitting of surface bubbles and patches of thick creamy weathering; some silt-like encrustation on interior of pyxis. Incredible golden and fiery rainbow iridescence.
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