vase

Object NameCore-Formed Vase

Made FromGlass

Dateprobably 1400-1300 BCE

TechniqueCore-formed, trail decorated, tooled

SizeOverall H: 10.7 cm; Shoulder Diam: 5 cm

Accession Number66.1.213

Curatorial Area(s)

Ancient

Exhibitions

Designs in Miniature: The Story of Mosaic Glass

Masterpieces of Glass from The Corning Museum of Glass

Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass

A Wonder to Behold: The Power of Craftsmanship and the Creation of Babylon’s Ishtar Gate

The Art of Glass: Masterpieces from The Corning Museum of Glass

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

The technique of core forming, which was introduced around the middle of the 16th century B.C., was used to fashion some of the first glass vessels. Core forming involves the application of glass to a removable core supported by a rod. There is no consensus about how this was accomplished. Some scholars believe that the glassmaker wound trails (strands) of molten glass around the core or dipped the core into molten glass. Others suggest that a paste of powdered glass was applied to the core and fused with heat. After forming, the object was removed from the rod and annealed (slowly cooled to room temperature). When the object had been annealed, the core was removed by scraping.

Place Made

Egypt

Physical DescriptionCore-Formed Vase. Turquoise glass matrix with applied and marvered threads of opaque cobalt blue, opaque yellow, and opaque white glass; core-formed, trail decorated and tooled. Rim flared out by tooling, decorated with two thin trails of applied translucent cobalt blue glass which had been reheated to flow together, short wide cylindrical neck spreads out into inverted long ovoid body with greatest diameter just below the shoulder; a heavy trail of yellow glass spirally wound with white and cobalt blue is placed in relief at the point where the neck spreads out to form the body which tapers toward the foot and is decorated with two registers of trails, the upper one beginning just above the greatest diameter and accenting this area with nine trails beginning with yellow and alternating with a blue trail, ending the register in a single white trail which has been carefully applied; the vessel bottom repeats this pattern, leaving a register in the center of the vessel undecorated; the lower register is smaller beginning with a yellow trail, two blue trails, one white, one blue, and ending with a second yellow trail; both areas have been dragged alternately up and down 19 times in order to create an elaborate feathered or festooned pattern; two small trail handles of yellow glass were applied over the pattern on the shoulder, almost directly opposite each other but are now missing; the transition at the bottom of the vessel is accented by a trail of opaque white glass spirally wound with transparent turquoise and left in relief as the trail around the neck; the base is tooled and pulled out from the body of the vessel and the rounded edge is highlighted with a trail of cobalt blue glass.
Provenance

Provenance Remark

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