Glass Page Index

_{Transparent glass bowl of fruit from wall painting
in Bedroom M of the Villa Boscoreale, an ancient
Roman villa, located in the town of Boscoreale,
about two kilometers outside Pompeii in Campania.}

To identifying ancient glass is to describe the type and shape of the vessel, the specific features of technique, style and decoration; and to use those features to identify the geographic origin and date of the object.

Types of vessels:

amphora
aryballos
askos
beaker
bottle
bowl
cone
cup
dish
flask
Frontinus bottle
goblet
Hofheim cup
honeycomb bowl
jar
jug
kohl tube
lenticular bottle
modiolus
pyxis
spouted bottle
sprinkler
tube
candlestick unguentarium
unguentarium
urn

Features of of sytle, technique and decoration:

base ring
bifurcated handle
colored blobs
blue dots - see colored blobs.
blue zigzag
buckle - see neck coil.
coil
collar rim
colorless
core-formed
crinkly coil
dots - see colored blobs.
cut-out fold - see projecting roll.
dolphin handle
double mould-blown
embedded thread
engraved
facet-cut
feathered pattern - see embedded thread.
feet - see pinched toes.
fine-grained decoration
fire-closed
flecks
folded stemmed foot
free-blown
freestanding zigzag
handle
horizontal grooves - see engraved.
indents
intaglio
kicked bottom
looped trail
lug - see pinched ribs.
moile
mold-blown
mouth - see rim.
natural blue green glass
neck coil
nicked trail
overlay
strongly colored glass
pattern-blown
pattern mold - see pattern-blowing.
pincered trail
pinched projections
pinched warts - see pinched projections.
pinched ribs and lugs
pinched toes
pinched feet - see pinched toes.
pontil
pontil mark
pontil scar - see pontil mark.
projecting roll
prunt
pushed-in hollow base ring - see base ring.
pushed in solid base ring - see base ring.
reeded handle
ribbed handle
ribs
rim
rim coil
ring-shaped pontil mark - see pontil mark.
rod-formed
scratching
serpentineform trails - see snake-thread.
shards
snake-thread
spectacle pattern
spiral coil
spiral ribbing
spiral trail - see spiral coil.
spiral thread - see embedded thread and thread-wound.
thread
threaded - see thread and embedded thread.
thread-wound
toes - see pinched toes.
trifurcated handle
tubular pontil mark - see pontil mark.
U-shaped mouth
wavy coil - see crinkly coil.
wavy thread - see crinkly coil.
wheel-abraded
wheel-cut
wheel incised lines - see wheel-cut.
zigzag - see blue zigzag and freestanding zigzag.

Conditions of preservation:

complete
intact
crizzled

References:

Allen, Denise. Roman Glass in Britain. (Buckinghamshire, 1998)
Carboni, Stefano and David Whitehouse. Glass of the Sultans. (New York, 2001)
Ettinghausen, Richard. Ancient Glass in the Freer Gallery of Art. (Smithsonian Institution, 1962).
Harden, Donald. Catalog of the Constable-Maxwell Collection of Ancient Glass. (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co, 1979)
Lightfoot, C.S. Ancient Glass in National Museums Scotland. (Edinburgh, 2007)
Matheson, Susan. Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art Gallery. (Meriden, 1980)
Neuburg, Frederic. Ancient Glass. (Toronto, 1962)
Stern, Marianne. Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C. - A.D. 50, Ernesto Wolf Collection. (Ostfildern-Ruit, 1994)
Stern, Marianne. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE - 700 CE, Ernesto Wolf Collection. (Ostfildern-Ruit, 2001)
Von Saldern, Axel. Ancient Glass in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. (Meriden, 1968)
Whitehouse, David. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Volume One. (Rochester, 1997)
Whitehouse, David. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Volume Two. (Rochester, 2001)
Whitehouse, David. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Volume Three. (Rochester, 1997)
Whitehouse, David. Sasanian and Post-Sasanian Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Volume One. (Manchester, 1997)