Marbled Glass Jar

  • Eastern Mediterranean or Italy
  • 1st century
  • Glass
Catalogue Entry

When one color of glass is melted into another color of glass, they create a flow of colors like marbled ink on paper. This glassmaking technique first appeared around the time of Christ. This type of glass is called marble glass for its resemblance to the stone of that name, and it seems that it was an extremely expensive commodity when it was first developed. This work is a blend of orange glass melted with white opaque glass which was then blown into the shape of a small jar. The vertical rise of the neck is topped by a mouth rim that is bent outward. There is a slight depression running around the center of the jar's body where the glassblower probably stopped briefly to form the jar. The center of the base is hollowed.?@The inside of the jar has a subdued color while the outside is quite lustrous, so it is possible that after this work was polished with a kind of acid it may have been coated with some sort of shiny material. This jar was probably originally used as a perfumed oil jar.