Greek Hellenistic Dark Blue Glass Lagynos

The wide and squat shape, long narrow neck and handle bent at a right angle categorize this flask as the type known as a lagynos, most probably used for perfume or oils.

Although the shape was popular with the contemporary ceramic, and the grooves suggest the imitation of a metal prototype, the semi-translucent dark blue glass makes this vessel unique and extremely attractive, a true luxury object.

This exceptional glass vessel was cast, lathe-cut and polished. It has a carinated body based on a circular foot with two wheel-cut grooves and a cylindrical neck terminating in a flaring mouth and rim which has a single wheel-cut groove within. The handle, rectangular in cross-section, is attached to the shoulder and neck, at the right-angle are two grooves, a diamond-shaped step cut at the base of the handle.

The famous cameo glass vase, the Portland Vase in the British Museum, has handles which are cut with shaped steps at the base in a similar fashion. There are two glass lagynoi in the Corning Museum of Glass with mouths and feet that have similar lathe-cut grooves. The handles of both are closely related in technique and style to the handle on this flask.

Complete; some weathering; small area of rim and base restored; two tiny chips on the base.

Sotheby’s London, 7^th July 1994, lot 48.

Sotheby’s London, 14^th July 1986, lot 29.

Ex- Benzian collection, Lucerne, Switzerland.

GOLDSTEIN S.M., Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, 1979, pp. 136-137, nos. 280-281.

OLIVER A., Jr., Glass Lagynoi, in Journal of Glass Studies 14, 1972, pp. 17-22, figs. 1-4.