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Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Glass / Roman Free-Blown Glass Perfume Bottle, Long-Neck Candlestick Type
Eastern Mediterranean, Judaea, Roman Imperial period. A slender free-blown glass vial of the "candlestick" type, its pale aqua body swelling into a rounded, almost bulbous lower chamber before drawing up into a long tubular neck that finishes in a flattened, outfolded disc rim. The metal is thin and gently irregular, with faint tooling ridges at the shoulder marking where the gaffer constricted the still-soft gather. Weathering has laid down an iridescent film of golden and silvery deposits over much of the surface, leaving the translucent sea-green glass visible at the base. Vessels of this shape held perfumed oils, unguents, and cosmetic essences; their narrow throats metered precious contents drop by drop, and they were frequently deposited in tombs alongside the dead. The piece is accompanied by a custom acrylic display stand. The candlestick unguentarium is one of the signature products of the eastern Roman glass industry, made possible by the invention of glassblowing in the Syro-Palestinian region during the mid 1st century BCE. That technical breakthrough collapsed the cost of glass from a luxury comparable to precious stone to something an ordinary household could own, and workshops along the Levantine coast turned out perfume vials by the thousand. The long neck is not decoration but function: it restricted evaporation and controlled the pour of costly balsams and scented oils, commodities for which Judaea itself was famous through the balsam groves of Jericho and En Gedi. Their frequent recovery from rock-cut tombs reflects the Roman funerary custom of anointing the body and leaving the vessel behind. Item # 205115
Estimate:$200
To the auctionView all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorGlass
Estimate:
$200
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A COBALT BLUE MOLDED GLASS JUGLET, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, 1ST–3RD CENTURY AD
10/09/2026
$1,360.86
Eastern Mediterranean Roman Glass Unguentarium, 1st to 3rd Century AD
08/24/2026
$217
Est: $115
