Aspersorium

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Object Name: 
Aspersorium
Place Made: 
Accession Number: 
2000.3.5
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 11.4 cm, W: 16.8 cm, D: 13.9 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
1600-1699
360 Image: 

Aspersorium

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Web Description: 
Places of worship in private homes were often equipped with wall-mounted fonts, as well as small glass buckets, for holy water. The buckets were sometimes suspended from a metal hook on the wall of a bedroom or study. This bucket was made of glass with a surface that resembles cracked ice. There are two ways to achieve this effect. The first method calls for a parison of hot glass to be plunged into cold water and withdrawn quickly. The thermal shock creates fissures in the surface, and these impart a frosted appearance after the parison has been reheated to allow the forming process to continue. In the second method, chips of colorless glass, picked up on a gather (a gob of molten glass) as it is rolled across a flat surface, fuse to the bubble as it is reheated. Ice glass was first made in 16th-century Venice, where it was often blown into a mold and decorated with colored trails.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Christie's, Paris, Source
2000-03-28
Category: 
Primary Description: 
Aspersorium. Colorless, with brownish tinge; translucent blue. Blown; applied, tooled. Round, bulbous bowl with conical sides rising to octagonal rim, with ribbon applied to outside; flat base with kick and pontil mark. On rim, two applied loops into which spirally ribbed handle is hooked. Outside of vessel, which is patterned into ice glass, has thread of translucent blue glass about 2.5 cm below rim.
Maiolica in Renaissance Venice: Ceramics and Luxury at the Crossroads (2021) illustrated, p. 107;
The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian-Style Glassworking (2019) illustrated, Introduction fig. 11; BIB# 716365
The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian Glassworking (2016) illustrated, Fig. 1; BIB# 149619
From Italy: Venice -- Glass Island (2011) illustrated, p. 46, left; BIB# AI92597
Recent Important Acquisitions, 43 (2001) illustrated, p. 200, fig. 16, back; BIB# AI53002
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 2000 (2001) illustrated, p. 8, right; BIB# AI98331
An Important Collection of Venetian and Facon deVenise Glass, sale #6272 (2000-03-28) illustrated, p. 10, lot 15; BIB# 95477