Rock crystal bottle, Classical Cypriot — Rock crystal bottle, Classical Cypriot, c. 499–100 BC. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 74.51.3599.Open Access by the MET

Classical

Rock crystal bottle

Craftsmen in Egypt and the Near East began making vessels out of rock crystal as early as the Early Bronze Age. The tradition was passed on to the great empires of the Classical world and persisted until late antiquity. The shapes of two of the examples (74.51.3599, 74.51.3600) are unusual and so are difficult to date. Despite their plain forms, they remain fine examples of the stonecutter's skill, for they are carved out of solid blocks of crystal. Above all, it was the almost transparent quality of the rock crystal that made such vessels highly prized luxury objects. H.: 4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm)

Classification

Object type: Stone vessel
Shape: Bottle
Material: StoneSemi-precious stone
Period: probablyHellenistic and RomanHellenistic
Date: 499 - 100 BC
Place of production: probablyCyprus

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Accession No.

74.51.3599

Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance

Said to be from Cyprus

References

Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1903. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 3. pl. LXXV, 1, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 3599, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Oliver, Andrew. 1973. "Rock Crystal Vessels in Antiquity." Muse : Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, 7: pp. 30-31.

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