LOT 0147

Very Large Eastern Roman Blue Glass Bottle with Iridescence

2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

11 1/2 in. (949 grams, 29.1 cm).

Piriform in profile with a narrow neck and flared mouth with a chamfered rim, dimple base.

From the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès private collection.
with Artcurial, Paris, 25 March 2014, no.39.
Private collection, London, UK.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12959-245241.

Cf. similar specimen in Kunstmuseum Luzern, 3000 Jahre Glaskunst, Luzern, 1981, p.78, no.253.

On ancient glass, iridescence is the soft play of colour that develops as the surface ages and becomes silica-rich. Minute layers form over time and break light into shifting blues, greens and golds. It is not a modern finish but something time has drawn out of the material itself, so the pattern and palette are unique to each piece. Collectors prize good, stable iridescence because it lifts the form: ribs read more crisply, profiles glow, and simple vessels take on depth and movement. Museums now tend to preserve these surfaces rather than polish them away, recognising both their beauty and what they tell us about an object’s long life (though it is not, by itself, a dating test). For display, iridescent glass performs brilliantly under gentle, directional light, where the colours “turn” as the vessel is moved. Well-preserved, even iridescence of this quality is not common and adds materially to the presence and desirability of the piece.