Bottle

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Object Name: 
Bottle
Accession Number: 
55.1.74
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 8.3 cm, Diam (max): 3.8 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
1-99
Primary Description: 
Transparent light blue glass; mold-blown, multi-part mold; rim reworked. Bottle with cylindrical neck and slightly constricted, six-sided body, which bulges and curves inward to bottom; rim everted, then folded upward and inward; sloping shoulder; flat base. Decorated in relief; on shoulder, six trapezoidal panels each containing semi-circular area with triangular boss at center; on body, six rectangular panels containing drinking vessels and accessories: (1) ladle, (2) chalice, (d) oenochoe, (4) patella, (5) cantharus, (6) skyphos; on lower part of body, fluting; on base, three concentric circles around central depression.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Smith, Ray Winfield (American, 1897-1982), Source
1955-09-09
Color: 
Technique: 
Material: 
Venue(s)
Metropolitan Museum of Art 2014-12-09 through 2015-04-13
Corning Museum of Glass 2015-05-16 through 2016-01-04
At the end of the first century B.C., glassmakers working in the environs of Jerusalem made a revolutionary breakthrough in the way glass was made. They discovered that glass could be inflated at the end of a hollow tube. This technical achievement—glassblowing—made the production of glass vessels much quicker and easier, and allowed glassmakers to develop new shapes and decorative techniques. One technique, inflating glass in molds carved with decorative and figural designs, was used to create multiple examples of a variety of vessel shapes with high-relief patterns. The molds used to shape this ancient glass were complex in their design, and the mold-blown glass vessels of ancient Rome tell a wealth of stories about the ancient world, from gladiators to perfume vessels, from portraits of a Roman empress to oil containers marked with the image of Mercury, Roman god of trade. Among the earliest workshops to design and create mold-blown glass was one in which a man named Ennion worked. Ennion was the first glassmaker to sign his glass objects by incorporating his name into the inscriptions that formed part of the mold’s design, and thus he stands among a small group of glass workers whose names have come down to us from antiquity. On view through January, 4, 2016, Ennion and His Legacy, is composed of mold-blown master works by Ennion and other Roman glassmakers. The works are drawn from the Corning Museum’s collection of Roman glass, one of the finest in the world. Within the larger exhibit is a smaller exhibit organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ennion: Master of Roman Glass, which focuses specifically on works made by Ennion. Composed of loans from a number of international institutions and private collections this exhibit within an exhibit brings together many of the known examples of Ennion’s wares and will be on view through October 19, 2015.
Treasures in Glass
Venue(s)
Allentown Art Museum 1966 through 1966
 
Glass from the Ancient World
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 1957-06-04 through 1957-09-15
Verres Antiques de la Collection R.W. Smith
Venue(s)
Musee de Mariemont 1954 through 1954
 
Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, Volume Two (2001) illustrated, pp. 37-38, pl. 507; BIB# 58895
Glass from the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection (1957) illustrated, p. 61-62, #76; BIB# 27315
Catalogue des Verres Antiques de la Collection Ray Winfield Smith (1954) illustrated, p. 24, #104; BIB# 28196