Beaker with Faceted Decoration

Beaker with Faceted Decoration

 
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Object Name: 
Beaker with Faceted Decoration
Department
Ancient
Category
Roman
Place Made: 
Roman Empire
Date: 
75-125
Color
AAT
green
AAT
colorless
Technique
AAT
grinding
AAT
turning
AAT
cutting
AAT
glassblowing
Material
AAT
glass
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 14.8 cm; Rim Diam: 7.9 cm
Accession Number: 
59.1.129
Location: 
On Display
Description
Greenish-colorless glass; blown, turned, cut. Slender conical beaker with splayed foot; rim ground flat, with molding at edge; straight tapering side, which changes angle and curves slightly near bottom; splayed foot, hollow, but with low boss underneath; on wall, between offset and ledge, eleven rows of facets, mostly diamond-shaped, in quincunx, top and bottom rows rounded, top row with small U-shaped facet between each pair.
Label Text
Roman glassworkers sometimes finished their products by cutting, grinding, and polishing. They had learned these techniques from lapidaries, who employed them in completing works made of semiprecious stone. Very little is known about the tools used in this process, although the Roman writer Pliny provides some information about the working of semiprecious stones with abrasives. The same abrasives were probably also used in the cold-working of glass. Indeed, it is likely that some craftsmen worked with both materials. Some of the glass objects finished by cutting, engraving, and wheel abrading featured faceted decoration. One of them was a conical beaker with 11 rows of mostly diamond-shaped facets made by grinding and polishing. Similar beakers have been found all over the Roman Empire, in Scandinavia, and in Afghanistan.
Provenance
Smith, Ray Winfield, Source
1959-07-27
Glass of the Caesars
Venue(s)
British Museum 1987-11-18 through 1988-03-06
Corning Museum of Glass
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
Fire and Ice: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum (2012) illustrated, p. 26, fig. 43;
Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations along the Silk Road (2012) illustrated, p. 59, fig. 10; BIB# 132698
Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, Volume One (1997) p. 233, #395; p. 367, #395; BIB# 58895
Glass and rock crystal: a multifaceted relationship (1997) illustrated, p. 202 ff.; p. 198, fig. 6;
All About Glass = Garasu Daihyakka (1993) p. 30; BIB# 36566
Glass of the Caesars (1987) illustrated, p. 195, #105; BIB# 31831
Early Roman Faceted Glass (1984) illustrated, pp. 35-58, p. 49, #30;
Glass from the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection (1957) illustrated, pp. 176-177, #357; BIB# 27315

What is AAT?

The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) (r) is a structured vocabulary for generic concepts related to art and architecture. It was developed by The Getty Research Institute to help research institutions become consistent in the terminology they use.Learn More