Roman Green Glass Unguentarium

Roman Empire, Eastern Mediterranean, circa 1st–2nd century A.D.

A good-sized free-blown glass perfume vessel of pleasing form, having a spherical, slightly piriform body that rises to a tall cylindrical neck with a gentle constriction at its junction with the body, terminating in a broad, outsplayed and folded disk rim. The metal is of pale blue-green tone, the surface enriched overall by silvery and earthen weathering, iridescence, and light accretions acquired through long burial. 

The vessel stands on a flattened, slightly concave base and remains intact. Height 5-1/4 inches (13.3 cm). This is precisely the type catalogued by museums as a globular or piriform unguentarium of the Roman Imperial period, used to hold perfumes, scented oils, and unguents and frequently recovered from burial contexts, where such bottles are popularly termed "tear bottles".

The form was widely produced across the Empire from the late 1st through the early 4th century A.D., and comparable examples are well represented in major collections, including the Toledo Museum of Art (2nd century, grayish-green, 4-7/8 in.) and the Princeton University Art Museum (1st–2nd century CE, greenish, piriform body). For closely related examples, see Susan Auth, Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum, New Jersey, 1976, and S. B. Matheson, Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale, 1980.

Condition is intact with stable weathering and iridescence consistent with age and entirely normal for the type; no repairs are noted.   

Provenance: Mr. Sid Hart, Cos Cob, Connecticut, acquired 1980s–1990s.