Roman, Imperial period, ca. 1st to 3rd century CE. An enchanting glass bowl featuring a concave base and straight walls that rise to a folded rim, all enveloped in centuries of weathering film and flakes of silver, gold, violet, and rainbow iridescence. Originally formed from translucent green glass, the surface has now turned opaque from centuries and weathering and iridescence. The uncommon form of this vessel may have served as a cup for holding libations during a ceremony, as a dish for a votive offering, or simply as an object of daily use. A stunning example of glass from the ancient Roman Empire! Size: 5.1" Diameter x 2" H (13 cm x 5.1 cm)

Most scholars agree, Roman glass was of the highest quality - both aesthetically and technically - among the ancients. While glass making had been practiced for centuries, glass blowing was invented in the Roman-controlled Holy Land in the 1st century BCE. This innovative technology revolutionized the artform. We can appreciate such a wide variety of forms and shapes, because the medium of glass has unique physical properties that make for so many more possibilities which would eventually replace a wide variety of pottery and metal wares in the ancient world. Roman glassmakers reached incredible artistic heights with both free-blown vessels and mold blown forms and decorations and were traded far beyond the Roman Empire. Roman glass vessels have been found in Scandinavia, India, and in Han Dynasty tombs in China.

Exhibited in "Ancient Glass: Selections from the Richard Brockway Collection" at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, Salem from March 10 to May 19, 2007 and "Glass of the Ancient World" at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Florida from October 11 to December 28, 2008.

Provenance: private Vero Beach, Florida, USA collection, acquired before 2003

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#177383

Expected wear with flaking to surface as shown, but otherwise intact and excellent. Nice weathering film and great iridescence. Pontil mark on underside of base. A pontil scar or mark indicates that a vessel was free-blown, while the absence of such a mark suggests that the work was either mold-blown or that the mark was intentionally smoothed away or wore away over time.