Published: May 15, 2018 • By Nora I. Moriarty and Debby Sneed

Catalogue Entry听Photograph of a dark glass bowl, from a slightly raised angle against a neutral gray background.

From the Catalogue of听Ancient Glass in the University of Colorado Museum

Gift of H. Medill Sarkisian and Justine Sarkisian Rodriguez (1979)
听(2008)
Height:听3.8 cm
Diameter (max.):听10.2听cm
Roman, 1st century C.E.

Classification: Isings Form 3a;听Harden Fabric 2 or 3

Description: Unworked lip on shallow bowl with somewhat sagged profile. 21 descend from pronounced shoulder to flat base of vessel.听 and flaking, to the extent that the original color is not discernable (at present it is several shades of brown).听Sagged (i.e., heated on a dome-shaped mold).

Comment: The weathering of this bowl has been extensive听and it has been abused in other ways, as indicated by a patch of glue-like substance on side.听Nevertheless, the shape and what remains of the original coloring suggests this bowl may be mosaic (cf. Eisen 1927,听pl. 32;听von Saldern 1968, no. 12). Other examples of this shape are Hayes 1975, no. 50听and Grose 1989, no. 232.

Discussion

The shape of this bowl was not determined by听free-blowing,听mold-blowing, or听core-forming. It was made through a process called "sagging" or "slumping". This shaping technique involves taking a flat disk or sheet of pliable glass听and placing it on top of a solid mold听to form the shape and design on the interior of the vessel. Then the glass is worked as it lays "slumped" or "sagged" over the dome-shaped mold to create a design on the exterior of the vessel. This process means that this bowl was worked while upside down (1).听

This bowl may have been made of mosaic glass, which is made from many small pieces of glass fused together in a kiln. The glass bits are laid side by side in a disk shape听on a paddle, which is slid into a hot kiln. When the disk comes out of the kiln hot and pliable, the glass is all pressed together to form one circular sheet of glass. Then the flat glass is sagged to the bowl mold (2).

Footnotes

  1. Robert J. Charleston,听Masterpieces of Glass: A World History from the Corning Museum of Glass听(New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1980): 39-40.
  2. Hugh Tait, ed.听Five Thousand Years of Glass听(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991): 218-221.

References

  • Eisen, G. A.听Glass: Its Origin, History, Chronology, Technic and Classification to the Sixteenth Century, v. 1.听New York: W. E. Rudge,听1927.
  • Grose, D. F.听Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50.听New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1989.
  • Hayes, J. W.听Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum.听罢辞谤辞苍迟辞:听1975.
  • von Saldern, A.听Ancient Glass in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1968.
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