CIRCA 4TH CENTURY A.D.

This flask is most unusual and was probably made in the Western Roman Empire. The flask would have been blown, as with conventionally shaped bottles, and then pinched to form the four columnar tubes. Some parallels are known; for a similar example, cf. S. H. Auth, Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum, Newark, 1976, p. 122, no. 151; also Hotel Drouot, Paris, Verres Antiques et de l'Islam: Ancienne collection de Monsieur D, 3 June 1985, lot 504, which is Gallo-Roman and found in France. For a similar example sold at Christie's cf. The Plesch Collection of Ancient Glass, 28 April 2009, lot 7.