Bottle (1st century): Artwork and History

Bottle (1st century) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman; Syria or Palestine.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Initially affordable only among the wealthy, glass was used in ancient Rome as containers for oils, perfume, and tablewares. The variety of glass-making techniques reveals the changing tastes and fashions over the centuries. During the 1st century A.D., cast glass was a novel form that was a luxury for the Roman household, but by the end of the century, the innovation of blown glass allowed for less labor-intensive and less expensive production of glass wares like this bottle, which meant people of lesser means could afford them. Blown glass became so popular it nearly supplanted ceramic and even bronze wares in the home.

Object facts

• Title: Bottle
• Date: 1st century
• Artist attribution: Roman; Syria or Palestine
• Place of origin: Syria
• Medium: Glass, mold-blown
• Dimensions: 7.2 × 4 × 4 cm (2 7/8 × 1 5/8 × 1 5/8 in.)
• Type: Vessel
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1891.24

Collection credit

Gift of George Schneider

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.