Flask

Object Details

Exhibition Label

Ancient glass beguiled artists and connoisseurs with its rich colors and irregularities--signs of hand workmanship that distinguished these vessels from factory-made glass. For John Gellatly, such imperfections likely added to their value; these were favorites within his vast collection, objects that he allegedly "sat fingering late into the night," according to a reporter at the time of their donation to the Smithsonian Institution.

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano, 2021.

Luce Center Label

Most of the glass vessels in this case date from the first century BC to the fourth century AD. Early glass vessels were made in the Middle East and Egypt using the core-forming technique, in which molten glass was poured over a clay core and decorated with threads of colored glass. During the first century AD, Rome became the center of glassmaking, and the invention of blown glass led to new methods, including free-blown glass, which could be decorated by pinching, rolling, or dragging the surface, and mold-blown glass, in which the molten glass was blown into a terra-cotta mold. The Romans also developed stratified glass, in which different colored canes were fused together and blown [see 1929.8.147.1, 1929.8.147.2], and millefiori glass (Italian for “one-thousand flowers”), in which colored strips of glass were joined together into a rod, cut into slices, and fused into bowls and cups [see 1929.8.147.13, 1929.8.157.9]. Many glass vessels were buried in the tombs of wealthy Romans and this contact with damp soil over hundreds of years caused the surface of the glass to deteriorate and become iridescent [see 1929.8.147.37, 1929.8.157.22].

Data Source

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Artist

Unidentified (Roman Empire)

Date

1st-4th century AD

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly

Medium

blown and applied hot-worked glass

Dimensions

3 3/8 × 3 1/8 in. (8.6 × 7.9 cm) diam.

Type

Decorative Arts-Glass