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Lot 296A
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Roman Glass Ampulla - Iridescent Blue-Green
Roman Glass Ampulla - Iridescent Blue-Green
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Roman, Eastern Roman Empire, ca. 200–399 CE. A free-blown ampulla of semi-translucent, pale blue-green glass, its rounded body swelling beneath a tall, gently flaring neck that rises to a smooth, outturned lip. The vessel rests on a slightly concave base, the kind of small irregularity that betrays the breath and turning of the glassblower's pipe. Centuries beneath the earth have draped the surface in a soft crust of weathering, here and there breaking into faint rainbow iridescence that flickers across the turquoise ground. Such bottles served the intimate economy of the Roman bath and household, holding scented oils, perfumes, or unguents poured drop by drop. Modest in scale yet quietly luminous, it speaks to the everyday refinement of glass production in the eastern Mediterranean provinces during the later Imperial centuries. Size: 3" D x 4.3" H (7.6 cm D x 10.9 cm H).

The eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, especially the Syro-Palestinian coast, were the heartland of ancient glassmaking. The invention of glassblowing there in the 1st century BCE transformed glass from a luxury into an affordable commodity, and by the 3rd and 4th centuries CE workshops were turning out vast quantities of utilitarian bottles, flasks, and unguentaria. The iridescent sheen prized by modern collectors is not original but a product of burial: alkali leaching from the glass over centuries forms microscopically thin laminated layers that refract light into spectral colors.

Provenance: private California, USA collection

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Item # 203293

  • Condition: Damaged. Area of loss to side of vessel. Several hairline fissures across body, and some encrustations along spout and body. Nice earthen deposits and faint rainbow iridescence throughout.

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by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Artemis Fine Arts

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000