This marvelous third to second century B.C.
“sand-core” formed amphoriskos – with its
multicolored ribbons - is a delightful example of
a visual style that was popular at that time and
would last well into the Roman period. Prior to
the advent of glass blowing techniques
pioneered by the Romans in the late Republic,
cultures of the Mediterranean that practiced
glass forming usually did so by winding molten
strands of glass around a removable core. It was
previously thought that such a technique
employed a sand core, but it has now been
recognized that more probably a core of straw-
tempered mud was used, around which the glass
would be formed. It is this visual impression of
ribbons of colored glass that would influence the
blown ribbon glass vessels of the early Roman
principate.
This amphoriskos, with its swelling, broad-
bellied midriff and sloping shoulder, leading
from a tiny pedestal to a slender neck, flanked
by two graceful handles, atop which sits a stout
lip, displays a pastiche of blacks and reds
interspersed with white, scalloped and spiraled
around the vessel’s equator, appearing
somewhat like a drapery of cloth. What sweet
wines or perfumes may have graced the interior
of this vessel, purchased by a husband, perhaps
as a gift for his wife, or brought as a gift by
honored guests? The dedication and skill of the
craftsmen that formed this glass vessel are
contained in the frozen, flowing rivers of color
that comprise its walls and dazzle the eyes of the
modern viewer, in much the same way that they
must have bedazzled the ancient Mediterranean
viewers as well.
Reference: John W. Hayes, Roman and Pre-
Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum.
Toronto: The Royal Ontario Museum, 1975. See
numbers 34-38.
