Roman perfume bottle
Translucent yellow miniature Roman glass jug used to hold perfumes or oils. Commonly found in burials.
Hand blown glass, Drop-shaped, globular body with flattened base, cylindrical neck, round-flared and thickened rim, folded over. No decoration, broad rounded shoulder. Some cloudy weathering.
Object number: 127.072
Date: 1st century A.D.
Parallels: New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 74.51.194, 74.51.5762, 74.51.186; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts 31.101; Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum 01.255; London, Science Museum A608632.
References: Kisa, A., Das Glas Im Altertume, Vol. 1, 1908; Morin, J., La verrerie en Gaule sous l'Empire Romain, Paris, H. Laurens, 1913; Myres, J. L., Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus, 1914, no. 5226, p. 509, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Isings, C., Roman Glass from dated finds, Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1957; Bagatti, B., Gli Scavi Di Nazaret, Gerusalemme: Tip. dei PP. Francescani, 1967; Folio Fine Art Ltd, Roman Glass, London, May 1971; von Saldern, A., et al., Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer, Hamburg, 1974; Kunina, N., Ancient Glass in the Hermitage Collection, St Petersburg: State Hermitage, 1997; Israeli, Y., Barag, D., and Brosh, N., Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: The Eliahu Dobkin Collection and Other Gifts, Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 2003; Stern, M., Roman, Byzantine, Early Medieval Glass 10 BCE-700CE, The Ernesto Wolf Collection, 2001; Wight, K., Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity, Los Angeles: Getty, 2011; Lightfoot, C. S., The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Ancient Glass, no. 255, p. 200, Online Publication, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017; Leljak, M., “Typology of the Roman glass vessels from the Croatian part of the province Pannonia”, Haemus Journal, vol. 1, 2021, 121-133; Hall, E. H.. "A Collection Made of Antique Glass", The Museum Journal IV, no. 4 (December, 1913): 119-141. Accessed December 20, 2021.
Photo by Steve Morton