Glass modiolus (one-handled drinking cup)
Rim outsplayed with rounded lip; broad sloping collar below, then curving in to cylindrical body, tapering downwards with slightly convex side; hollow folded foot ring at junction of side and bottom; bottom convex around edge but concave at center; two-ribbed strap handle, applied in an arched pad to upper body, drawn up and round in a loop, and pressed onto undercurve of collar.
Trail wound around top of rim; surface covered with round and elongated blobs.
Broken and repaired around rim and upper body, with patches of restoration and one remaining chip in rim; severe pitting, dulling, iridescence, and creamy weathering especially on white blobs and trail.
Vessels of this shape are known in silver and pottery as well as glass. The shape resembles that of a measuring cup, from which the name modiolus derives. But the rich ornamentation found on many of these cups—as here the polychrome blobbed decoration—indicates that they were used as luxury tableware.
Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881 (81.10.93)
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass modiolus (one-handled drinking cup)
- Period: Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian or Flavian
- Date: 1st century CE
- Culture: Roman
- Medium: Glass; blown and decorated with marvered blobs
- Dimensions: H.: 4 13/16 in. (12.2 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929
- Object Number: 29.100.71
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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