Lot 16
Ancient Greece, eastern Mediterranean, likely from Rhodes, ca. early 5th century BCE. A striking core-formed glass oinochoe vessel with a piriform body, a trefoil spout, and a curvaceous trailed strap handle in mesmerizing saturated cobalt blue hues with contrasting tangerine orange and sky blue banding above and below a register of feathered zigzag swags in the same coloration as well as an elegant sky blue trail tracing the trefoil spout. Dark cobalt blue was favored by the ancients in part because it reminded them of coveted lapis lazuli. A beautiful vessel like this would have been made for the elites of ancient society. Size: 2.25" W at widest point (handle to opposite end) x 3.75" H (5.7 cm x 9.5 cm)
According to the Corning Museum of Glass, core forming is "the technique of forming a vessel by winding or gathering molten glass around a core supported by a rod. After forming, the object is removed from the rod and annealed. After annealing, the core is removed by scraping." (https://www.cmog.org/glass-dictionary/core-forming). This process of glass making was begun in the late 16th century BCE by glassmakers of Mesopotamia, and then adopted by Egyptian glassmakers in the 15th century BCE. The technique almost came to an end in the so-called Dark Ages of Mediterranean civilization (1200 to 900 BCE); however, by the 9th century BCE a new generation of glassmakers took up the technique once again, and between the 6th and 4th century BCE core-forming spread throughout the Mediterranean.
See similar examples from Camiros, Rhodes in the British Museum, published in D. B. Harden, "Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum," Volume I, "Core and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenean Cast Objects" (London 1981), p. 98, nos. 258-61.
Provenance: The Dere Family Collection, New York, USA, assembled 1970's-2000's; ex-Martin J. Wunsch collection, New York, USA, acquired in the 1980s
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#147859
- Condition: Foot reattached. Possible repair to neck and handle. Otherwise normal surface wear commensurate with age. Deposits here and there. Old collection labels on underside of foot.
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