Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2012.1.87
Title
Unguentarium (cosmetic bottle)
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
2nd-4th century
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/148432

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Glass
Technique
Free-blown glass
Dimensions
6.97 cm (2 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Walton Brooks McDaniel, New Jersey (?-1943/46) gift; to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, (1943/46-2012) transfer; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2012.

Note: Walton Brooks McDaniel gave a portion of his collection to the Department of the Classics in 1943 and the rest in 1946. The Collection is named for his late wife, Alice Corinne McDaniel.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Accession Year
2012
Object Number
2012.1.87
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Intact piriform unguentarium of clear or pale blue-green glass. The bottom is flat; the neck is short, flaring out to form a flat mouth. The vessel has white opalescent opaque iridescence over most of the body.

Classification: C. Isings, Roman Glass from Dated Finds (Djakarta: Groningen, 1957), form 8/28a

Comparisons: Metropolitan Museum 74.51.58007; Adria, Mus. Arc. 65M

Commentary
An unguentarium is a small, bottle used for ointments, perfumes, balms, and other liquids associated with the toilet. Vessels typically have a bulbous bottom and narrow, tubular neck, but lack handles. Bulbous-bottomed, glass unguentaria were one of the earliest shapes to be made using the glassblowing technique. A piriform unguentarium is distinguished by its pear-shaped base.

Unguentaria were among the earliest shapes made in blown glass and the piriform shaped (pear-shape) unguentarium were common in clear, pale blue-green glass (1). The bulbous form of the unguentarium was originally made in colored glass, but by the first century CE the pale, blue-green glass seen here predominated. In later forms, the bottom flattens and the neck becomes longer.

The unguentarium is sometimes not distinguished from the balsamarium, another vessel used to hold balms and ointments (See: 2003.100.7)

1. E. M. Stern. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass. The Ernesto Wolf Collection (New York, 2001), p. 44.

Publication History

  • John Crawford, Sidney Goldstein, George M. A. Hanfmann, John Kroll, Judith Lerner, Miranda Marvin, Charlotte Moore, and Duane Roller, Objects of Ancient Daily Life. A Catalogue of the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection Belonging to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, ed. Jane Waldbaum, Department of the Classics (unpublished manuscript, 1970), Gl12, p. 120 [S. M. Goldstein]

Subjects and Contexts

  • Roman Domestic Art

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu