Glass square bottle with base inscription

Glass square bottle with base inscription

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green; handle in same color. Slanting rim folded out, over, and in, and flattened on top surface, forming a restricted oval opening to mouth; concave cylindrical neck; uneven shoulder with rounded outer edges; square body with vertical sides; flat bottom, slightly pushed in at center with circular pontil scar; broad strap handle applied in a thick pad across shoulder, drawn up at a slant, turned in at an acute angle, and trailed onto neck and underside of rim. On bottom, Greek inscription in relief, written in retrograde in three lines: OMO at top, NOI at bottom, and A to one side in the middle. Intact, although top end of trail on handle is broken off with weathered edges, and one crack down side at one corner; many large and elongated bubbles; dulling, pitting, and iridescence, with patches of encrustation and black weathering on exterior, encrustation, weathering, and iridescence on interior. Many everyday containers were made in molds to a consistent size, like modern wine or beer bottles. Some of the molds included a stamp, usually on the base, as a trademark, although it remains uncertain whether this referred to the bottles or to their contents. On this example there is a inscription in large Greek letters on the base: it reads OMONOIA, probably a personal name.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass square bottle with base inscriptionGlass square bottle with base inscriptionGlass square bottle with base inscriptionGlass square bottle with base inscriptionGlass square bottle with base inscription

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.