Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium
Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium

Roman Blue Glass Quadruple-handled Unguentarium

17417

$895.00
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Eastern Mediterranean,  ca 1st to 3rd Century AD

This is a free-blown vessel with a bluish-green tint featuring a cylindrical chamber with a flared rim, a bulbous lower body tapering to a flat disc foot, and four loop handles trailed on at right angles around the neck and body. The glass shows characteristic ancient weathering with earthen patina and light iridescence consistent with prolonged burial.

The vessel body was formed using the free-blowing technique that became dominant in Roman glassmaking by the 1st century A.D.. The glassmaker gathered molten glass on the end of a blowpipe and inflated it, shaping the characteristic cylindrical chamber with a constricted waist and bulbous lower body by rotating and manipulating the bubble while hot. The bluish-green tint seen in your piece results from iron impurities naturally present in the silica sand, which was the default color of Roman glass produced in the Levant
The handles were created using the trailing technique — the process of drawing hot trails of molten glass from a separate gather and applying them directly onto the warm body of the vessel. For each handle, the glassmaker drew a thick coil of molten glass, attached it at the rim, looped it outward, and trailed it down to attach at the shoulder or mid-body. This was repeated four times at right angles around the vessel, as noted in the Tarshish certificate.

Size: 3⅝ inches height.  and has been repaired at handle with restoration to rim. Still a fine display specimen. 

Provenance: Property from a New York City collector; Acquired from J. Zadok & Sons, 18 King David Road, P.O. Box 470, Jerusalem, Israel; with a certificate of antiquity which dates the piece to the Roman Period, 100 B.C. to 200 A.D. and is dated August 24, 1971. The original purchase price was IL 215 ($61.43). Tarshish – J. Zadok & Sons is a well-known, long-established authorized dealer of antiquities in Jerusalem, still in operation today. 


All pieces are unconditionally guaranteed authentic and as described in perpetuity and have been legally acquired and imported in full accordance with U.S. and applicable foreign regulations regarding the movement and sale of antiquities.

A signed guarantee of authenticity with a description and photograph of the item(s) accompanies this object.

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