1968.24

Janiform Mould-Blown Flask

Purchased. Max. ht 8.5cm; diam. 4.8cm.

Mould blown glass flask with ledge rim, folded in, its body formed by two youthful-looking faces; both have knobby long hair coming down to a wide, short neck. Intact but the surface somewhat iridescent from deterioration as well as carrying a certain amount of dirt. The glass is slightly green. Flat base; the lip somewhat tilted.

Like 1968.23, also in this catalogue, this was blown into a mould. Head-vases were very popular under the empire and are often small and poorly made. Some have only one face, but the two-faced ones are more common (they would need only one patrix, or original model, from which to form the two halves of the mould).

Some early examples were found at Pompeii (destroyed AD 79), but most are later. They seem to belong principally to the eastern half of the Empire. For a general discussion, see Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume (Leipzig 1908) iii, 751ff. The type is Isings, Roman Glass from Dated Finds 93-94, Form 78a. Ours is close to P. La Baume, Glas der antiken Welt I, no. C 14, pl. 10, 4, where further references will be found. Our example is no earlier than the third century AD, and some were produced in the fourth century if not later. E.M. Stern (The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass, Rome 1996, 211) dates a similar example from a Period C house at Karanis to the mid-Roman period, but as Hayes (Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 1975, 2) has noted, the ceramic evidence suggests a later date for the abandonment of houses here. Parallel: C.C. Edgar, Catalogue général des antiquities égyptiennes du musée du Caire XXII: Graeco-Egyptian Glass (Leipzig 1905) 38-39, no. 32.573, pl. VI; Stern nos 151-153 (all dated third century).

For a good article on blown glass, see E.M. Stern, “Roman Glassblowing in a Cultural Context”, American Journal of Archaeology 103, 1999, 441-484, “Audacis plebeia toreumata vitri. Souffler le verre dans les moules”, in: C. Fontaine-Hodiamont (ed.), D’Ennion au Val Saint-Lambert. Le verre soufflé-moulé. Actes des 23e Rencontres de l’Association française pour l’Archéologie du Verre (Scientia Artis, 5, Brussels 2010) 25-37, and see her monograph E.M. Stern, The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass. The First through Sixth Centuries (Rome 1995), where she deals with pieces of our type in chapter 3, with excellent introductory discussion. Note also D. Whitehouse, Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, ii (Corning NY 2001) no. 549, and F.M.A. van den Dries, “Some Notes on Roman Mold Material and the Technique of Molding for Glassblowing”, Journal of Glass Studies 49, 2007, 23-38.

Bought from Museum Mesopotamia, Beirut.

J.R. Green with B. Rawson, Catalogue of Antiquities in the Australian National University, A.N.U. (Canberra, 1981) 113.