flask
Object NameFish
Made FromGlass
Date200-299
Place MadeRoman Empire; probably Eastern Mediterranean
TechniqueBlown, applied, tooled
SizeOverall (when longest stripes on body are horizontal) H: 9.9 cm, W: 22.5 cm, Th: 2.8 cm
Accession Number55.1.94
Curatorial Area(s)
Exhibitions
Glass from the Ancient World
Ancient Art in American Private Collections
Poseidon and the Sea: Myth, Cult, and Daily Life
Steuben Glass Animals
Antikes Glas aus der Sammlung Ray Winfield Smith
Antikes Glas aus der Sammlung Ray Winfield Smith: Kurpfalzischen Museum Heidelberg
Not On View
Physical DescriptionAlmost colorless glass, but with yellowish green tint; blown (parison blown in dip mold, withdrawn, and inflated to full size and shape), applied. Flask in form of fish with deep, narrow body, which has faint horizontal ribs (five on one side, six on other). Mouth open and beak-like, formed by tooling; eyes probably represented by blobs (lost, but scar may indicate position of one) and gills by trail wound once around body; dorsal fin consists of long trail applied to top of head above gills, drawn back along body, and pinched into 17 narrow projections; two pinched blobs on sides of body behind gills represent pectoral fins and two additional pinched blobs near “tail” also represent fins; “tail” consists of tubular neck which curves back and up, and terminates in plain, rounded rim; upper neck is decorated with single continuous trail.Provenance
Source
Ray Winfield Smith
(American, 1897-1982) - 1955-09-09
