SECOND HALF OF 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN TRANSLUCENT PALE GREEN GLASS 'HARVEST' BEAKER
SECOND HALF OF 1ST CENTURY A.D.
Of elegantly waisted form, decorated in relief in two friezes, the upper frieze with encircling garland of alternating pairs of ears of barley and pomegranates (four pairs of each), the lower frieze with scrolling tendrils of three grape bunches alternating with three heart-shaped vine leaves, two horizontal ribs around the beaker below the ground-down rim and waist, mould-blown with two concave wall sections and a circular base with small central relief circle, slight iridescence
3½ in. (8.9 cm.) high; 2½ in. (6.3 cm.) rim diam.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Few of these types of 'Harvest' beaker survive worldwide; the most well-known with the same decoration being two blue-green glass beakers formerly in the Constable-Maxwell collection (Bonhams London, 14 July 2004, lot 15, formerly from the British Rail Pension Fund; and Sotheby's London, 7 July 1994, lot 139 from the Benzian collection); the third blue-green beaker is from a German collection (cf. 3000 Jahre Glaskunst, Luzern, 1981, no. 272). Cylindrical glass beakers of non-waisted form with similar single frieze decoration include two vessels from the Oppenländer collection (cf. A. von Saldern et al., Gläser der Antike, Hamburg, 1974, nos. 446 and 452); and another from the Cinzano collection and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (cf. P. Lazarus, Cinzano Glass Collection, London, 1974, no. 6).

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