Lot 23
Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 2nd century CE. A sizeable vessel of a cylindrical body extending to a tubular neck with a collared rim as well as a gorgeous thick, trailed handle joining rim to shoulder - all upon a concave bottom with a broken pontil. Areas of sparkling, almost glitter-like, rainbow iridescence are on the mouth of the vessel and silvery and rainbow iridescence striate the surface throughout the body. Size: 3.125" in diameter x 7.125" H (7.9 cm x 18.1 cm)
The following quote poetically describes the artistic process of creating free-blown glass in ancient Rome, "First he heated the very point of the iron, then snatched from nearby a lump of bright glass and placed it skillfully within the hollow furnace. And the crystal as it tasted the heat of the fire was softened by the strokes of Hephaestus like . . .he blew in from his mouth a quick breath . . . .like a man essaying the most delightful art of the flute. The glass received the force of his breath and became swollen out around itself like a sphere before it. It would receive another onslaught of the divine breath, for often swinging it like an ox-herd his crook he would breath into . . ." ( P. Oxy. 50.3536, a third century poem on glass blowing - R.A. Coles, Oxyrhynchus Papyri 50 (1983), p. 58 from "Solid Liquid" catalogue, Fortuna Fine Arts, New York, 1999, p. 56)
Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection
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#131886
- Condition: Chips to the rim. Broken pontil. Sections of weathering with iridescent highlights. Iridescent film that has come away from the interior resting within the body.
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