Live Auction 2364Antiquities Including Property from The Collection of Max Palevsky
A MESOPOTAMIAN CORE-FORMED GLASS BOTTLE
Lot 64

A MESOPOTAMIAN CORE-FORMED GLASS BOTTLE

CIRCA MID TO LATE 15TH CENTURY B.C.

Closed9 December 2010

Price Realised

USD 146,500

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A MESOPOTAMIAN CORE-FORMED GLASS BOTTLE
CIRCA MID TO LATE 15TH CENTURY B.C.
Opaque cobalt blue in color, with an ovoid body, pointed at the base, a tall cylindrical neck and a rounded outsplayed rim, with applied opaque white, green and yellow marvered threads tooled into patterns, including zigzag on the neck, festoons on the shoulders, zigzag on the body and festoons at the base, with a yellow thread at the rim
5¼ in. (13.3 cm.) high

Said to have been found in Syria in 1975.
Private Collection, Lebanon, 1976-2008.
Acquired by the current owner in 2008.

Specialist note

The first glass vessels ever produced, all by the core-form method, were made in northern Mesopotamia in the late 16th and early 15th centuries B.C. Early examples have been found at Nuzi, Tel al-Fakhar, Tel al-Rimah, Tel Brak, Assur, and Nineveh, all sites that were within the control or sphere of influence of the Hurrians. Other early vessels have been found at Atchana in northern Syria, which are thought to be imports from northern Mesopotamia. For a vessel of similar shape and decoration see fig. 17 in Grose, Early Ancient Glass.