Perfume Bottle (Alabastron) (c. 325–275 BCE): Art, History and Details

Perfume Bottle (Alabastron) (c. 325–275 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Before glassblowing was invented in about 50 BC, glass bottles were formed by winding molten glass around a mud or dung core much the way cotton candy is wrapped around a paper cone. Later, the core was scraped out leaving a hollow bottle to be filled with expensive perfumes or scented oils.

Object facts

• Title: Perfume Bottle (Alabastron)
• Date: c. 325–275 BCE
• Culture: Italy or Eastern Mediterranean, Etruscan
• Type: Glass
• Technique: glass
• Dimensions: Diameter: 5.1 cm (2 in.); Overall: 16.5 cm (6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Etruscan
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1994.9

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions to the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection,” August 26, 1994, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Kozloff, Arielle. 1996. "Is There an Alexandrian Style--What Is Egyptian about It?" in Alexandria and Alexandrianism: Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by The J. Paul Getty Museum, and J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. Malibu, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996, pp. 247-260.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.