A ROMAN OPAQUE WHITE GLASS HEAD FLASK

CIRCA LATE 1ST - EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN OPAQUE WHITE GLASS HEAD FLASK
CIRCA LATE 1ST - EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.
The body blown into a two-part mould with double heads, one side with a smiling face, with curling hair and two distinct hook-like curving locks above the forehead, the other side with a serious face, wearing a fillet with curls falling over it at the temples, both faces with recessed pupils, concentric circle and mould seam on the underside of the base, with tall cylindrical neck and flat inward-folded rim
2 ½ in. (6.4 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired prior to 2000.

Brought to you by

Francesca Hickin

fhickin@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3195

Lot Essay

For a discussion on the different types of head flasks, see Stern, 1995, pp. 201-215, and for an almost identical flask cf. pp. 221-222, no. 141. Stern notes that head flasks of this type are "one of the earliest double head-shaped vessels made in the eastern Mediterranean. About half the known examples are opaque white".

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