**First Time At Auction**

Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 3rd century CE. An elegant amber glass vessel, the body presenting a curvaceous silhouette, leading to a tubular neck, a dramatically flared mouth with a folded rim, and a generous trailed handle joining rim to shoulder - all on a slightly dimpled base. Size: 2.875" in diameter x 5.125" H (7.3 cm x 13 cm)

The following quote waxes poetic about the process of free-blown glass in ancient Rome, "First he heated the very point of the iron, then snatched from nearby a lump of bright glass and placed it skillfully within the hollow furnace. And the crystal as it tasted the heat of the fire was softened by the strokes of Hephaestus like . . .he blue in from his mouth a quick breath . . . .like a man essaying the most delightful art of the flute. The glass received the force of his breath and became swollen out around itself like a sphere before it. It would receive another onslaught of the divine breath, for often swinging it like an ox-herd his crook he would breath into . . ." ( P. Oxy. 50.3536, a third century poem on glass blowing - R.A. Coles, Oxyrhynchus Papyri 50 (1983), p. 58 from "Solid Liquid" catalogue, Fortuna Fine Arts, New York, 1999, p. 56)

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection

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#131370

Repaired and restored from about 20 pieces with some visible fissures and nice areas of rainbow iridescence. Very smooth finish, since the conservator applied a varnish to make the seams smooth.