Fragment of a Mosaic Glass Vessel

  • Eastern Mediterranean or Italy
  • 1st century B.C. - 1st century A.D.
Catalogue Entry

(a)-c, (f)-(h), (k), (l), and (n), are a fragments of vessels which were formed from mosaic glass units with their pattern visible in their cross-sections arranged, fired and formed into a vessel. This vessel used a variety of mosaic units made up of diverse colors and patterns. (a), (b), (h), (l), and (m) are fragments of so-called patella cups. (m) is a fragment of a vessel made up of mosaic units with a striped pattern of white glass on blue glass and mosaic units made up of yellow and red glass sandwiched between clear translucent glass. A rod of blue glass wrapped in white glass is attached to the mouth rim. (o) is a fragment of a vessel made of ribbon glass, a type of mosaic glass. The fragment is made up of translucent yellow, blue and green glass rods sandwiched between white glass, rods of dark purple glass with white stripes, and rods of translucent yellow glass wrapped in white cords. There are places where the rods in this fragment were aligned in ninety degree angles and this fragment is from a vessel which had a design split into four across the vessel surface. (I) is probably also a fragment of ribbon glass. (e) and (j) are fragments from a ribbed design cup, with a translucent brown glass surface and attached stripe patterns in brown and white or blue and white glass. These were fired as a single large mosaic unit. (d) is a fragment of mosaic glass made up of multiple layers of colored glass.

Fragment of a Mosaic Glass Vessel