Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
Lot 1*
An Eastern Mediterranean core-formed blue glass amphoriskos 2
6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £2,200
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Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
An Eastern Mediterranean core-formed blue glass amphoriskos
Hellenistic Period, circa 2nd-mid 1st Century B.C.
The piriform body of dark blue glass, with applied opaque white and yellow marvered trailing, the combed festoons on the body between a spiral design on the base and neck, with applied blue twin handles and peg base, 14cm high; together with disc of blue glass with opaque white trail spiral, reputedly discovered together, 3cm diam. (2)
Hellenistic Period, circa 2nd-mid 1st Century B.C.
The piriform body of dark blue glass, with applied opaque white and yellow marvered trailing, the combed festoons on the body between a spiral design on the base and neck, with applied blue twin handles and peg base, 14cm high; together with disc of blue glass with opaque white trail spiral, reputedly discovered together, 3cm diam. (2)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Private collection, London.
with Antiquarium Ltd, New York, acquired from the above in 1998.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above in 1999.
This amphoriskos conforms to Harden's Mediterranean Group 3, Form 7B: cf. D. B. Harden, Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. I. Core- and Rod-formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenaean Cast Objects, London 1981, pp. 122-3. For a similar amphoriskos from the Cesnola Collection see V. Karageorghis, Ancient Art from Cyprus. The Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2000, p. 286, no. 467. Such late Hellenistic core-formed amphoriskae, typified by the use of translucent glass for the handles and knob base, are found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Rather than a lid or bottle top, this glass disc may be a spindle whorl, as evinced by the glass extending slightly from the central hole, which indicates it was rod-formed. Whorls first appear in the Hellenistic Period and continue being used throughout the Roman period. The decoration on this example is unusual, as most are decorated with thin spiral trailing that is sometimes further combed into festoons. For a general discussion cf. M. Spear, Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum. Beads and Other Small Objects, Jerusalem, 2001, pp. 258-61, nos. 617-30.