Transparent blue and translucent white glass; blown, cased, wheel-cut and engraved; half-ovoid body, flattened at bottom; plain rim with internal bevel; side almost vertical at top, curving in towards bottom; flat base; wall and base cased and cut on wheel and engraved to produce white relief ornament on blue background. Decoration on wall consists of continuous frieze between narrow borderline below rim and groundline above base, asteroid flower in double circle on base. Frieze is a ritual scene: priestess stands facing right, her right arm raised and fingers extended, bearing lighted token in left hand; in front of her, low table with stepped base and baluster; supporting altar with burning pinecone, and fruits; beyond this, herm of Priapus on pedestal, which is garlanded; behind priestess, female with ewer in right hand and tray of objects in left hand at shoulder height; she looks back over right shoulder, and has hair drawn up on top of head and wears Greek tunic; behind her, large handleless krater on gadrooned foot, and behind this another ritual scene; young satyr wearing loincloth bound at waist, fastens one end of curtain to top of column, other end being tied to branches of tree; below curtain, between column and tree, second female kneels facing right, lifts sheet from straight-sided basket; behind tree, donkey stands facing right, tethered to branch, saddled and bridled, stool-like object on top of saddle. Flower has four pointed oval petals with median grooves alternating with four triangular petals with median grooves.

The rarest and most elaborate luxury vessels of the early Roman Empire are cameo glasses. These objects were inspired by relief-cut gems of banded semiprecious stones such as onyx. Glassmakers cased (covered) objects of one color with one or more layers of glass of different colors, opaque white on translucent deep blue being the most popular combination. The layered “blank” was given to a lapidary for carving, cutting, and polishing. The process required great skill and considerable time. This cameo vessel, the Morgan Cup (it was once owned by J. Pierpont Morgan), is decorated with a continuous frieze depicting a religious ceremony at a rural shrine. One side shows a female approaching a statue of Silenus. Women who wanted to become pregnant sometimes invoked the help of the god Dionysus, for whom Silenus, his tutor, here acts as proxy.