Old, Really Old, Ancient, what the heck is it?

[GuntherHess]

Interesting item. It appears to be free blown and paddle formed. Air bubbles dont really mean a lot (other than they glass wasnt optimally heated when it was blown). Its a tough call with free blown items that have no provinance. Patina can be reproduced.

 

[Plumbata]

Looks like material from the Arabic lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Could be from a time when it was under Roman (or Byzantine) control and may be from as late as the 10th century. It doesn't look core formed to me. Just a guess though, and I have a hunch that many dark age/medieval glass items are called "ancient Roman" because they will sell better that way. It is of a good size, as far as it goes.

 

[RED Matthews]

Well trccscott; I agree with the fact that it is an early hand blown and formed bottle. I also agree that it could have been a piece made in any number of Roman stabilized early glass operations. I have seen a lot of these pieces of early work. The Corning Museum has a lot of them on display - and cover them as Mediterranean products. I have an early Greek bottle that was made over a ceramic core, and it is no doubt my oldest bottle.
Thanks for showing it to us. If you are selling it let me know, but I would never give up something that old. It would have to be sold my my daughters after I left this Happy Bottle Hunting World. And I don't think it will end today.
RED Matthews

 

[RED Matthews]

After reading the post by Matt, I went back and looked at the pictures again. I decided that the bottle had five sides and assume that one must have had the handle on it. Please explain. There are no mold seams in the pictures so Ihave to agree that is was flattened by the use of a battleldor or wooden paddle and a marver plate. Unusual but great.
RED Matthews

 

[trccscott]

I decided that the bottle had five sides and assume that one must have had the handle on it. Please explain.

Red, correct, here is the shot of that....

 

[jnoon]

That is a really cool find! Is there a story behind how you came into possession?

 

[trccscott]

Unfortunately no special story about digging it up or finding it in some long lost trunk. []

I purchased it online for $18.50, and once I received felt it merited getting some more opinions on what it could be. The seller acquired it along with some other bottles in an estate sale, so there is no telling when and how the original owner may have acquired it.

 

[JustGlass]

I saw one that looked alot like this one in a antique shop about a month and a half ago.I think it was marked $9.00. It had a quarter size piece of the the mouth broken off but it was with the bottle and could be easily reattached. I almost purchased it but I try to stay away from damaged bottles so I returned it to it's shelf. It may still be there. The next time I stop there I will check and if it is I will get a pic of it.

 

[trccscott]

Folks here is the initial appraisal that has come in from an agency:

This item appears to be an authentic piece of Roman Glass, measuring approximately 6" x 2" x 2", probably from the 1st or 2nd century, with the typical encrustation and patina. Roman glass is quite common on the secondary market these days as there is a lot of excavation going on in the Middle East and a lot more of it has been discovered. The vase is calcified because it was buried.

This is a nice little piece and appears to be in good condition. The current wholesale value would probably be in the range of $150 ($300 replacement value) because of its size and fine condition

My next step will be to take it either to the Tacoma Glass Museum (Tacoma) or Uptown Glass Works in Renton here in the area to confirm that they concur with this assessment based on manufacture techniques.

The value of $150-300 seems a bit low for something of this age, but then again what do I know? Maybe Roman glass and this exact piece is fairly common, but I find it hard to believe there are more of this piece around than some poisons, but then again maybe there are not as many Roman glass collectors vs. Poison collectors, or maybe I need a very specialized auction environment to actually realize the full potential value of this piece?

 

[epackage]

Scott,I hope you didn't pay for the appraisal considering I basically hit the nail on the head in my first post....Jim[8D][8D][8D]

Cool piece either way...