Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
Lot 33*
A group of seven Roman glass artefacts and a pair of Chinese blue glass ear ornaments, 9
6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £1,785 inc. premium
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Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
A group of seven Roman glass artefacts
Circa 1st-6th Century A.D.
Comprising an amber glass miniature cup, the sides tapering towards the flat ground rim, 4cm high, 5.5cm diam.; a small Roman green glass bottle with piriform body, 6.5cm high; three Roman bracelets, the largest and middle bracelet of cobalt blue glass, the smallest of transparent dark green, all semi-circular in section with flat inner side, marked with collection numbers '290908', '290907' and '299771', 6.8cm, 6cm, 5.7cm diam.; a miniature glass flask of 'spindle' form, 4cm high; a pilgrim flask, Late Roman-Early Byzantine, with flattened disc body and cut-off neck, 10cm high; and a pair of Chinese blue glass ear ornaments, Er dang, cast and of pierced reel-shape with sunken tops, Han Dynasty, each 1.4cm high (9)
Circa 1st-6th Century A.D.
Comprising an amber glass miniature cup, the sides tapering towards the flat ground rim, 4cm high, 5.5cm diam.; a small Roman green glass bottle with piriform body, 6.5cm high; three Roman bracelets, the largest and middle bracelet of cobalt blue glass, the smallest of transparent dark green, all semi-circular in section with flat inner side, marked with collection numbers '290908', '290907' and '299771', 6.8cm, 6cm, 5.7cm diam.; a miniature glass flask of 'spindle' form, 4cm high; a pilgrim flask, Late Roman-Early Byzantine, with flattened disc body and cut-off neck, 10cm high; and a pair of Chinese blue glass ear ornaments, Er dang, cast and of pierced reel-shape with sunken tops, Han Dynasty, each 1.4cm high (9)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Amber cup: with Fortuna Fine Arts Ltd, New York (Shining Vessels, 1991, no. 71).
Beads: with Asiantiques, Fl., 29 December 1996.
All: Private collection, U.S., formed from the 1980s onwards.
There are similar blue glass ear ornaments in the Corning Museum, dated 206 B.C.-220 A.D., acc. no. 58.6.1, and 58.6.1 D-H; it is noted that these ornaments were inserted into the ears as jewellery. For a general overview of early Chinese glass produced during the Han Dynasty cf. R.P. Wilson's section on 'Chinese glass' in Hugh Tait (ed.), Five Thousand Years of Glass, British Museum, London, 1991, pp. 140-3.