LOT 0121

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.

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.