Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
Lot 12*
A Roman blue glass trulla and a Roman blue-green glass modiolus 2
6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £7,650 inc. premium
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Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
A Roman blue glass trulla and a Roman blue-green glass modiolus
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
Reputedly discovered together and likely from the same workshop, the trulla with a hemispherical bowl with fine spiral trail decoration, set on a flaring tooled foot, with flattened rim, the spatulate handle with streaks of yellow glass extending to the rim, 11.2cm diam., 6.5cm high; the modiolus with folded rim and triple-ribbed strap handle, the rounded body with encircling bands of fine spiral trail decoration, tapering to an applied foot, 12.5cm high, 13.8cm diam. (2)
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
Reputedly discovered together and likely from the same workshop, the trulla with a hemispherical bowl with fine spiral trail decoration, set on a flaring tooled foot, with flattened rim, the spatulate handle with streaks of yellow glass extending to the rim, 11.2cm diam., 6.5cm high; the modiolus with folded rim and triple-ribbed strap handle, the rounded body with encircling bands of fine spiral trail decoration, tapering to an applied foot, 12.5cm high, 13.8cm diam. (2)
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Antiquarium Ltd, New York.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above 20 March 1991.
These ladles or pans with long handles, known in Latin as trullae, were widely used throughout the Roman Empire, though are more frequently found in silver or bronze. They are associated with drinking and serving liquids. There is a similar trulla in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 17.194.125, and another in the Corning Museum of Glass, acc. no. 66.1.224. Gold band and cast blue examples have been found at Herculaneum, confirming the existence of the type in the 1st Century A.D. (L.A. Scatozzao-Höricht, I vetri romani di Erolano, Rome, 1986, pp. 38-9, nos. 54-5). The thin trailing on this example is extremely unusual.
This modiolus is more unusual than related examples by having a curved rather than a tapering, straight profile. For an example and a discussion on modioli see D. Whitehouse, Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 3, New York, 2003, p. 139, fig. 1126. Most modioli date to the second half of the 1st Century A.D., and were made in various materials such as silver, earthenware and glass. Many of these glass cups have been found in Italy, including Pompeii and Herculaneum. Modiolus is the diminutive form of the Latin word modius, which was a grain measure, from which the cup took its form.