LOT 0135

Roman Deep Blue Glass Date Flask

1ST CENTURY A.D.

3 1/8 in. (41.7 grams, 80 mm).

Mould-blown with elliptical body, short neck and thick everted rim, with modelled wrinkles imitating the texture of a dried date.

Dr Gonik & Me Wirth, Geneva, 1970s.
Private collection, Europe.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12394-226935.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf. an identical flask in the Art Institute of Chicago, inventory no.1891.32, in Alexander, K.B., ‘From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago’ in Manchester, K., Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2012, p.37; see also Whitehouse, D., Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol.2, New York, 2001, items 519-520-521, for type; see also Stern, E.M., Ancient Glass at the foundation Custodia (Collection Frits Lug) Paris, Archaeologica Traiectina, Groningen, 1977, pp.44-46, for the diffusion of this typology inside the Mediterranean regions.

Dates were not only a staple of the Mediterranean diet, used to sweeten food and wine, but also a symbol for the New Year and a fruit often given as a gift on the occasion.