GLASS 



GLASS PITCHER. 24582. [Plate CLIV.] 



Small pitcher of thin, pale yellow glass, found in Villa I, in o,ne 

 of the rooms supposed to have been occupied by the servants. 1 



It is in good condition except for a hole 2 obliquely beneath the 

 handle. One side of the mouth is bent in. 



The body, which is nearly globular in form, rests upon a plain 

 slightly concave bottom without base-ring, and, on the upper side, 

 passes easily into the rather long round neck, which is straight to 

 near the top, where it becomes flaring. The mouth is trefoil with 

 molded lip, which is rolled inward at the upper edge. 



The handle is flat, with a shallow vertical groove on the inside 

 and a deep groove on the outside. It was made separately, and, 

 when in a soft state,, bent into a fold at the top to form a thumb-rest. 

 A long narrow string of glass, remaining after the attachment with 

 the top, was turned back over the thumb-rest, which is thus, in part, 

 of four thicknesses, and down the back of the handle near to its lower 

 end. 



Though the chief center of the glass industry throughout antiquity 

 was Egypt, from which country it was, before the end of the Roman 

 republic, imported in large quantities into Italy, 3 there were also 

 factories in Italy, particularly in Campania, where the sands between 

 , Cumae and Liternum were found to be useful in the production of 

 clear, transparent glass, 4 and by the first century A. D. it had come 

 into common domestic use and had become very cheap. 5 Of such 

 household ware this pitcher is a specimen. 



It is not certain just what purpose such pitchers served, but at the 

 present time small glass pitchers of similar shape are in common use 

 in Italy as containers of oil or vinegar for the table. 



Height, m. 0.135 (=5-3 I m -)- Height of body, m. 0.125 (=4-9 2 m -)- Diameter, 

 m. 0.089 ( =3-5 m -)- Diameter of bottom, about m. 0.037 ( = 1.45 in.). Diameter of 

 neck (smallest), m. 0.0315 ( = 1.24 in.). Height of handle, m. 0.074 ( = 2.91 &•)• 

 Width of handle (least), m. 0.011 (=0.43 in.). Thickness of glass, about }/* mm. 

 below break, and about >£ mm. above (estimated). 



1 Pasqui, M. A. L. vii, col. 496: "presso l'angolo a sinistra della pariete di fondo a pie del letto 

 posava un oinochoe di vetro chiaro con corpo a bulla e collo cilindrico" (fig. 67). 

 ! M. 0.037X0.018. Piece lost, 

 a Cf. Cicero, pro Rab. Post. 14. 



* Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 26 (66). Deville, Hist, de I' art de la verrerie dans Vantiquite, p. 18. 

 6 Strabo, xvi, p. 758. 



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