Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
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Lot 159*
Two Roman blue-green glass double balsamaria 2
7 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,000 - £1,500
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Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
Two Roman blue-green glass double balsamaria
Circa 4th-5th Century A.D.
One with twin tubular phials with a central band of spiral trail and an arched basket handle, folded at the rim with a trailed loop on either side of the conjoint body; the other with conjoint tubular phials, with the lower part of the trail handles remaining, 18cm and 13cm high respectively (2)
Circa 4th-5th Century A.D.
One with twin tubular phials with a central band of spiral trail and an arched basket handle, folded at the rim with a trailed loop on either side of the conjoint body; the other with conjoint tubular phials, with the lower part of the trail handles remaining, 18cm and 13cm high respectively (2)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Handled balsamarium: Property from the Collection of Gerd Lester; Sotheby's, New York, 25 June 1992, lot 390 (part).
Fragmentary handle: Property of Muriel Katz; Sotheby's, New York, 12-13 December 1991, lot 359 (part).
Private collection, USA, acquired at the above sales.
The basket-handle formed from a continuous rod of glass is more unusual and may also be found on two vessels in the Newark Museum of Art: a double balsamarium and a jar with a moulded hexagonal body (S. H. Auth, Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum, Newark, 1976, p. 143, no. 81, and p. 81, no. 86 respectively), and on another balsamarium in The Corning Museum of Glass (D. Whitehouse, Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2, Corning, 2001, pp. 196-7, no. 749).