Translucent cobalt blue; handles in same color. Rim folded out, round, and in, with uneven beveled upper edge; short cylindrical neck; hexagonal sloping shoulder; hexagonal body, curving in at top below shoulder, then straight-sided but tapering downwards, and curving out to projecting plain band at bottom; flat hexagonal bottom; two strap handles applied to shoulder, drawn up and slightly outwards, then turned in, folded into a flattened thumb rest, projecting outwards above rim, and trailed off on underside of rim and top of neck. On shoulder, six palmettes with alternating inward and outward facing leaves at angles, and six recessed semicircular pediments with thick raised rib-like edges on panels, decorated alternately with circular bosses comprising two small concentric circles and a central dot and a plain four-armed cross; on body, six panels, each surrounded by raised lines and each containing a different device: 1) Greek inscription in three lines; 2) palmette with inward facing leaves above suspended tendrils at either side tied into a loop below to support a bunch of grapes; 3) ivy tendrils hanging from top corners supporting a cantharus by one of its handles; 4) palmette with outward facing leaves above suspended tendrils at either side tied into a loop below to support double flutes; 5) ivy tendrils hanging from top corners supporting a fluted oinochoe by its handle; 6) palmette with inward facing leaves above suspended tendrils at either side tied into a loop below to support a set of pipes; on bottom, four concentric raised circles. Broken on body and bottom, with one hole on bottom edge of shoulder, lower part of three panels, and slightly over half of bottom missing; few bubbles and black inclusions; some dulling and faint pitting, patches of creamy brown weathering with faint iridescence. Shoulder and body blown in a three-part mold; separate mold for bottom.
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Title:Glass hexagonal amphoriskos
Period:Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian
Date:1st half of 1st century CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Glass; blown in a four-part mold
Dimensions:Other: 5 5/8 × 3 1/8 × 2 13/16 in. (14.2 × 8 × 7.2 cm) Diam. of rim: 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm)
Classification:Glass
Credit Line:Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881
Accession Number:81.10.224
Signature: Signed by Ennion
Inscription: Inscribed in Greek: "Ennion made [me/it]"
Said to be from Potamia, near Golgoi, Cyprus ( A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection…, 1903, vol. 3, pt. 2, pl. LXXVIII, 5)
In 1876, excavated in Potamia, near Golgoi, Cyprus, by Luigi Palma di Cesnola; afterwards, collection of L.P. di Cesnola; before 1879, purchased by Jules Charvet from L.P. di Cesnola; until 1881, collection of Jules Charvet, Le Pecq, Île-de-France; 1881, purchased from J. Charvet by Henry G. Marquand; acquired in 1881, gift of Henry G. Marquand.
Froehner, Wilhelm. 1879. La verrerie antique: déscription de la Collection Charvet. pp. 65 n. 3, 120, 139, pl. 26.107, Le Pecq: Jules Charvet.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1881. Twelfth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Association for eight months ending December 31, 1881. pp. 215–16, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Goodyear, William H. 1885. "The Charvet Collection of Ancient Glass in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts, 1(2/3): p. 166 n. 6, pl. 7.4.
American Art Galleries. 1901. Greek Art: The Collection of Henry Morgan. pp. 24–25, no. 123.
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1903. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 3. pl. LXXVIII, 5, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
Kisa, Anton. 1908. Das Glas im Altertume, Vol. 2. figs. 273, 273a, Leipzig: K. W. Hiersemann.
Kisa, Anton. 1908. Das Glas im Altertume, Vol. 3. p. 714, Leipzig: K. W. Hiersemann.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1911. "The Room of Ancient Glass." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6(6) Supp.: pp. 16, 20, fig. 25.
Daremberg, Charles and Edmond Saglio. 1919[1877]. Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, Vol. 5. p. 944, fig. 7541, Paris: Hachette.
Eisen, Gustavus A. and Fahim Joseph Kouchakji. 1927. Glass: Its Origin, History, Chronology, Technic and Classification to the Sixteenth Century, Vol. 1. p. 271, pl. 57, New York: W. E. Rudge.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930[1911]. The Room of Ancient Glass, : pp. 16, 20, fig. 25.
Harden, Donald Benjamin. 1935. "Romano-Syrian Glasses with Mould-Blown Inscriptions." The Journal of Roman Studies, 25: p. 169, Appendix B, no. 1.1a.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Christine Alexander. 1939. Augustan Art: An Exhibition Commemorating the Bimillennium of the Birth of Augustus. p. 22, fig. 49, New York: Marchbanks Press.
Vessberg, Olof. 1952. "Roman Glass in Cyprus." Opuscula archaeologica, 7: pp. 142, 144, pl. 6.29.
Vessberg, Olof and Alfred Wesholm. 1956. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Vol. 4, Pt. 3. pp. 167, 207, fig. 47:27, Stockholm: Håkan Ohlssons Boktryckeri.
Forbes, Robert J. 1957. Studies in Ancient Technology, Vol. 5. p. 167, fig. 30, Leiden: Brill.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 3. p. 344, fig. 417, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Hayward, Jane. 1962. "Roman Mold-blown Glass at Yale University." Journal of Glass Studies, 4: p. 51.
Auth, Susan H. 1976. Ancient glass at the Newark Museum from the Eugene Schaefer Collection of antiquities. pp. 66–67, Newark: Newark Museum.
Lehrer, Gusta. 1979. Ennion: A First Century Glassmaker. p. 9, pls. 3.1–.4, Ramat Aviv: Haaretz Museum.
Israeli, Yael. 1983. "Ennion in Jerusalem." Journal of Glass Studies, 25: pp. 67–69, ns. 7, 15.
Kaufman, Asher S. 1984. "A Note on Artistic Representations of the Second Temple of Jerusalem." The Biblical Archaeologist, 47(4): p. 254.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 85, p. 114, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Stern, E. Marianne. 1995. Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries. pp. 69–70, 73 n. 85b, 86a, 87, 89, 74, 90 n. 163, 148 n. 7b, fig. 45, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider.
Barag, Dan P. 1996. "Phoenicia and mold-blowing in the early Roman period." Annales du 13e Congrès de l'Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre, Pays Bas 28 août-1 septembre 1995, Gioia Meconcelli, ed. no. 10, p. 80, Lochem: Association internationale pour l'histoire du verre.
Strouse, Jean and Joan R. Mertens. 2000. "J. Pierpont Morgan: Financier and Collector." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 57(3): p. 56, fig. 66.
Lightfoot, Christopher S. and Elisabetta Valtz Fino. 2001. "In "Ars Vitraria: Glass in the Metropolitan Museum of Art": Greek and Roman Art." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 59(1): p. 22.
von Saldern, Axel. 2004. Antikes Glas. p. 241, fig. 209, Munich: Beck.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 397, pp. 340, 484, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2013. "Metropolitan Müzesi, Cesnola Koleksiyonu’nda Yeralan Kıbrıs Cam Eserleri." Anadolu Antik Cam Araştırmaları Sempozyumu, Kaunos/Kbid Toplantıları, 2, C. Gençler Güray, ed. p. 84, Ankara: Bilgin Press.
Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2014. Ennion: Master of Roman Glass. no. 9, pp. 27, 54–55, 84–85, figs. 15, 44–46, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lightfoot, Christopher S. 2017. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Ancient Glass. pp. 13, 52, figs. 2–3, Online Publication, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Fowlkes-Childs, Blair and Michael Seymour. 2019. The World Between Empires : Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East. no. 79, p. 109, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Fowlkes-Childs, Blair and Michael Seymour. 2019. "A Picture Album." The World Between Empires : Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East. p. 13, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. pp. 16–17, 198, fig. 7, New York: Scala Publishers.
Editorial Assistant Rachel High discusses the Museum's first publication devoted to Ennion with Ennion: Master of Roman Glass curator and author, Christopher Lightfoot.
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