Pitcher

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Object Name: 
Pitcher
Accession Number: 
65.1.2
Dimensions: 
Overall Diam (max): 10.3 cm; Rim H: 19.3 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
1-50
Primary Description: 
Transparent light green glass; mold-blown, four-piece mold; rim reworked; handle applied. Ovoid body, curves inward towards bottom; rim everted, folded upward and inward, then pinched into pronounced trefoil; neck slightly constricted below rim, then cylindrical; shoulder rounded; base concave with small central depression; handle applied below rim and on shoulder, folded at top to form sloping thumb-stop. Mold-blown decoration: at base of neck, bottoms of faint vertical flutes with rounded ends; on body, three friezes: (a) below two horizontal ribs, running sprays of alternate upright and inverted palmettes; (b) below horizontal rib, lattice pattern of conjoined lozenges; (c) below horizontal rib and extending to bottom, vertical flutes rounded at top.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Smith, Ray Winfield (American, 1897-1982), Source
1966-01-04
Category: 
Color: 
Material: 
Venue(s)
Metropolitan Museum of Art 2014-12-09 through 2015-04-13
Corning Museum of Glass 2015-05-16 through 2016-01-04
At the end of the first century B.C., glassmakers working in the environs of Jerusalem made a revolutionary breakthrough in the way glass was made. They discovered that glass could be inflated at the end of a hollow tube. This technical achievement—glassblowing—made the production of glass vessels much quicker and easier, and allowed glassmakers to develop new shapes and decorative techniques. One technique, inflating glass in molds carved with decorative and figural designs, was used to create multiple examples of a variety of vessel shapes with high-relief patterns. The molds used to shape this ancient glass were complex in their design, and the mold-blown glass vessels of ancient Rome tell a wealth of stories about the ancient world, from gladiators to perfume vessels, from portraits of a Roman empress to oil containers marked with the image of Mercury, Roman god of trade. Among the earliest workshops to design and create mold-blown glass was one in which a man named Ennion worked. Ennion was the first glassmaker to sign his glass objects by incorporating his name into the inscriptions that formed part of the mold’s design, and thus he stands among a small group of glass workers whose names have come down to us from antiquity. On view through January, 4, 2016, Ennion and His Legacy, is composed of mold-blown master works by Ennion and other Roman glassmakers. The works are drawn from the Corning Museum’s collection of Roman glass, one of the finest in the world. Within the larger exhibit is a smaller exhibit organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ennion: Master of Roman Glass, which focuses specifically on works made by Ennion. Composed of loans from a number of international institutions and private collections this exhibit within an exhibit brings together many of the known examples of Ennion’s wares and will be on view through October 19, 2015.
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
Yokohama Museum of Art 1992-10-12 through 1992-12-13
 
Glass from the Ancient World
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 1957-06-04 through 1957-09-15
Mould-Blown Glass from Ancient Rome (2015-07) illustrated, p. 12 (bottom); BIB# AI100202
Ennion: Master of Roman Glass (2014) illustrated, p. 124-125 (cat. no. 34); BIB# 142184
Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, Volume Two (2001) illustrated, pp. 51-52, pl. 524; BIB# 58895
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass (1992) illustrated, p. 21, #11; p. 246; BIB# 35679
Glass terminology: a German-English Glossary (1967) illustrated, pl. II (right); BIB# 59459
Glass Terminology: a German-English Glossary (1967) illustrated, pl. II (right); BIB# 141372
Recent Important Acquisitions, 8 (1966) illustrated, pp. 128-129, #4; BIB# AI97742
Glass from the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection (1957) illustrated, pp. 57-58, #68; BIB# 27315