Beaker with Dolphins

Object Name: 
Beaker with Dolphins

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Object Name: 
Beaker with Dolphins
Place Made: 
Accession Number: 
82.1.1
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 20.4 cm; Rim Diam: 7.4 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
275-325
Web Description: 
This drinking vessel was decorated with sinuous snake-thread trails of molten glass patterned to form the bodies of leaping dolphins.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Loffler, Karl, Source
1982-08-03
Category: 
Primary Description: 
Colorless glass with a yellow greenish tinge, slightly pitted and iridescent surface; blown with applied snake thread decoration. Rounded, thickened rim flares out sharply from long cylindrical body tapering to a rounded bottom with short solid cylindrical stem and flared foot; body is divided into two registers by two thin trails applied beneath the rim, two in the center and one near the bottom; the top register has three dolphins with full bodies trailing up to V-shaped tails, the tail formed from a pincered or tooled and folded trail, a single trail, tooled with ribbed decoration forms the stylized dorsal fin, mouth and curls under to create a C-shaped pelvic fin; each dolphin is divided from the other by a wide horizontally trail pulled off to the right at its base and is overlapped by an elaborate scalloped trail which is pulled up to the right to frame the bottom and right side of each figure; the lower register has three water lilies or mussels, a V-shaped trail has been tooled to create a wide body from which a central column emerges; the pistil and stamen is surrounded by a thin inverted triangular element with a zigzag top, the right side is a double trail broken away at the end; each is framed by a motif similar to that in the upper register, the base trail forms an elaborate "stem" then trails down to form the elaborate fill ornament below and to the right of the water lily; solid cylindrical stem, applied flared foot with pontil mark.
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
Yokohama Museum of Art 1992-10-12 through 1992-12-13
The Art of Glass: Masterpieces from The Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
IBM Gallery 1989-12-12 through 1990-02-02
National Gallery of Art 1990-12-09 through 1991-04-14
Decorative and utilitarian works from the Corning Museum of Glass, surveying 35 centuries of glass-making technology and stylistic developments from ancient Egyptian, Roman, Islamic, and Asian cultures to contemporary American and European examples. The works were selected by Corning Museum staff members Dwight P. Lanmon, director and curator of European glass; David B. Whitehouse, curator of ancient and Islamic glass; Jane Shadel Spillman, curator of American glass; and Susanne K. Frantz, curator of 20th-century glass.
 
Glass of the Caesars
Venue(s)
British Museum 1987-11-18 through 1988-03-06
Romisch-Germanisches Museum 1988-04-15 through 1988-10-18
Musei Capitolini 1988-11-03 through 1989-01-31
Corning Museum of Glass
Glass: A Short History (Smithsonian Books edition) (2012) illustrated, pp. 34-35; BIB# 130360
Glass: A Short History (The British Museum edition) (2012) illustrated, pp. 34-35; BIB# 135965
Glass: making use of the secrets of matter (2003) illustrated, p. 36; BIB# 76451
Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, Volume Two (2001) pp. 217-219, pl. 786; BIB# 58895
Roman Glass: Reflections on Everyday Life (1997) illustrated, p. 8 (plate 13); BIB# 41305
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass (1992) illustrated, p. 23, #14; p. 246; BIB# 35679
A Short History of Glass (1990 edition) (1990) illustrated, p. 30, #23; p. 33; BIB# 33211
Le Verre des Cesars (1988-02) illustrated, p. 16;
Glass Of The Roman Empire (1988) illustrated, pp. 30-31, fig. 11; pp. 7, 9; BIB# 32608
Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass (postcards) (1987) illustrated, #11; BIB# 34348
Glass of the Caesars (1987) illustrated, p. 139, #67; BIB# 31831
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1982 (1983) illustrated, p. 7; BIB# AI97140
Recent Important Acquisitions, 25 (1983) illustrated, p. 257, #1; BIB# AI98084
Festschrift fur Waldemar Haberey (1976) 156 p.; BIB# 20467