CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

The Latin name patella is a diminutive for patera and literally means ‘small dish’. It describes a small drinking cup with double convex section on a ring foot and no handles. It would have been part of the dinner service of wealthy Romans and according to Varro it was employed at home during mealtime to make a food offering to the gods, cf. K. D. Matthews, Scutella, Patella, Patera, Patina, in The Penn Museum, Expedition Magazine, Vol. 11, Summer 1969, p. 33-34.
For similar examples in different colours, cf. Schlick-Nolte in Bianchi, ed., Reflections on Ancient Glass from the Borowski Collection, Mainz, 2002, nos. V-38 and V-39, pp. 82-84.