Ancient Roman Spherical Glass Flask, c. 1st - 2nd Century AD
A pleasingly formed large blown-glass Roman flask in an unusual golden yellow color. It has a spherical body with a slender neck and a flared lip with deeply rolled rim, and very fine golden surface patina with some earthen deposits.
There are significant areas of blue, green, silver, gold and magenta iridescence.
Excellent condition and extremely attractive!
Provenance: from a private Midwestern US collection, acquired in Turkey early 1960’s.
See Corning Museum of Glass Monograph 6, #129 for a flask of similar form from a burial at Sardis, dated late 1st to early 2nd Century AD.
The survival of this fragile glass seems nearly miraculous. Occasionally examples where the glass has reacted to burial exhibit a shimmering iridescence that has long captivated the imagination of the most ardent collectors and artists.
(133 x 81 mm - 5 1/4 x 3 1/8 inches)
