Glass perfume bottle of alabastron shape. Cylindrical body with convex edge, short neck with slight groove at the lower part. It has a wide disc-shaped lip, slightly asymmetrical due to its being hand-made. The pseudo-handles appear as pierced lugs. The vase is made of deep blue glass, by the core-forming technique. The main decorative zone has alternating groups of zigzag trails of light blue and yellow. There are light blue and yellow parallel trails around the base, the shoulder, the neck and the edge of the rim.
Read moreThe alabastron shape first appears in the Greek world in the middle of the 6th century B.C. and it was popular until the end of the 5th century B.C. In the beginning the vases were made of alabaster and of clay. From the end of the 6th century B.C. on, with the introduction of the technique of glass-making, alabastra were made also of glass-paste. The shape is thought to be of Egyptian origin, as was also alabaster stone. It is also thought that the name comes from the Egyptian expression a-la-baste (= the vase of the goddess Bast/Boubaste). Its use as a perfume bottle is confirmed by the literary sources and by its frequent appearance on pottery in scenes of ladies’ toiletry.
St. Eleftheratou
