Ancient Greece, Classical Period, ca. 2nd to 1st century BCE. Comprised of a deep forest green glass body with opaque yellow and white trailing wrapped around the neck and shoulder, a feathered pattern on most of the body, and resolving to a wrapped linear pattern at the lower end just above the knob base terminal which is made of a wound translucent green trail. The elegant handles are comprised of long translucent spring green trails joining neck to shoulder. Most interesting, there are traces of burgundy violet glass around the rim and at the shoulder of this piece - perhaps the maker's personal touch. Size: 2.125" W at widest point x 6.125" H (5.4 cm x 15.6 cm); 6.75" H (17.1 cm) on included custom stand.
Glassblowing was an exciting process in the Classical World - not without drama according to this passage, "The workman having quarried it, brought the glass and put in the fire the mass hard as iron, and the glass, set afire by the all-devouring flames, run out melted like wax. And to men it was a marvel to see a trail flowing from the fire, and the workman trembling lest it should fall and break; and on the points of the double forceps he put the lump. (Anthology Palatine XVI.323 - the Collection of Greek poems and epigrams that were discovered in 1606 in the Palatine Library in Heidelberg - Loeb translation by W.R. Paton (1979), vol. 5, p.353.
See a similar example in "Solid Liquid: Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic Glass." Fortuna Fine Arts, Inc., New York, 1999, p. 20, fig. 14.
Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-Martin Wunsch collection, New York, USA, acquired in the 1980s
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#143866
Condition
Stable cracks to upper end of one handle and lower end of the other handle. Small area of repair to shoulder. Some popped surface bubbles that likely occurred when the piece was made. Slight areas of weathering film to mouth, handles, and neck. Repairs and cracks are difficult to see and the piece is otherwise excellent.