Perfume Bottle (Alabastron)

Object Name: 
Perfume Bottle (Alabastron)

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Object Name: 
Perfume Bottle (Alabastron)
Place Made: 
Accession Number: 
63.1.29
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 11 cm, Diam (max): 4.7 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
799-600 BCE
Credit Line: 
The Corning Museum of Glass
Primary Description: 
Perfume Bottle (Alabastron). Opaque grey-brown glass with opaque yellow and opaque white trails, bubbly dull surface with several large cavities and long cracks, patches of thin incrustation; core-formed. Thickened rim of yellow glass, short cylindrical neck spreads out somewhat to shoulder, narrow shoulder bends down into elongated ovoid body which tapers to a point; neck is decorated with two applied white trails forming a register in which three more white trails have been dragged up and down thirteen times, a yellow trail from the rim seems to run through this design and down into the decoration on the body terminating in a marvered blob near one handle; the body is decorated with the continuous white trail closely wound thirty-three times around the vessel and dragged up and down over thirty times, all trails marvered in; two handles applied below shoulder in yellow glass are broken away but must have been "ducks head" variety; yellow applied to tip of base.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Dobkin, Eliahu, Source
1963-12-21
A Wonder to Behold: The Power of Craftsmanship and the Creation of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate
Venue(s)
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World 2019-11-06 through 2020-05-24
"A Wonder to Behold: Craftsmanship and the Creation of the Ishtar Gate at Babylon" will examine the skilled and ritually transformative power of craftsman in the ancient Near East through the lens of the Ishtar Gate. Built by Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled 604 -- 562 B.C.) as a monumental entry way into the capital city of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate is composed of individually molded, colorful glazed ceramic bricks. Technologies of glaze and glass were intricately linked at this time, with the materials and their craftsman consider the most magical or alchemical for their ability to transform mundane raw materials of clay and sand into luminous objects. Along with surviving pieces of the Ishtar Gate and archival materials from its excavation, the exhibition will feature inscribed, stamped, and glazed bricks, clay and glass figurines, ancient glass objects, materials in their raw forms, and examples of modern craft traditions of mudbrick and glass.
Glass and Glass Production in the Near East During the Iron Age: Evidence from Objects, Texts and Chemical Analysis (2019) illustrated, pp. 225, 274 (AM40);
Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses (Volume 3) (2012) illustrated, p. 597, right; BIB# 61154
Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass (1979) illustrated, p. 104, #205; BIB# 29547
Mesopotamian core-formed glass vessels (1500-500 B.C.) (1970) illustrated, p. 168, #5 (fig. 77); BIB# 143382
Recent Important Acquisitions, 6 (1964) illustrated, pp. 156-157, #2; BIB# AI97744