The unguentarium is a shape of new small vessels, which have appeared from the 3rd century B.C. and have been very popular all throughout the Hellenistic period; they are thought to have been used for the transport of perfumes or cosmetic oils which mostly served during funeral ceremonies.
This core-formed example is made of dark blue colored glass and has a shiny surface. The neck and the foot are two cylindrical, high stalks, the body is in the shape of a drop; the handles are two simple glass discs that were folded and applied to the body at its widest point. Slightly incised vertical lines furrow the vessel.
The decoration is composed of a single yellow thread, applied on the still-warm surface, that winds around the neck while, on the belly, it is dragged into a thick zigzag pattern.

The core-forming technique of glass manufacture, which is very old, was already known in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the early 2nd millennium B.C. In the Greek world, this process has first been applied by Rhodian workshops (6th century B.C.), and later in Italy and in Alexandria; it was gradually abandoned in the late Hellenistic period, due to concurrence of blown glass. The general shape of the container was obtained by modeling, first, roughly purified clay (the core): this core was attached to a rod and dipped into molten glass, while the form was given by the rolling and/or stretching of the mass on a flat slab; the malleability of the glass was maintained through a constant re-heating of the mass. The distinctive decoration of these containers was produced by incorporating into the surface glass threads of different colors that could be dragged with a metal pin into a zigzag or feather pattern. The clay core was removed mechanically after the cooling of the vessel.
Our piece is among the finest examples of this class of perfume vases: glass examples are attested all throughout the ancient world and imitate the morphology of the terracotta mass production, of which they certainly were the luxury versions. Other unguentaria, very rare however, were made of silver.

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