Ancient Roman-Style Art Glass Ewer Serving Vessel or Vase

Details

Description

On offer is an art glass ewer, a vessel with a handle and a flared neck. It features design elements … Read more On offer is an art glass ewer, a vessel with a handle and a flared neck. It features design elements reminiscent of ancient Rome mixed with mid-to-late 20th-century art glass techniques.
While it mimics the form of an ancient Roman or Byzantine glass ewer—specifically the globular body, wrapped neck coil and single high handle—the vibrant pink inclusion and the style of the pontil all suggest a more modern art glass creation. Glass studios in Murano, Italy, or independent Western art glass makers from the 1970s onward regularly produced "antique style" gilded ewers.
The neck features vertical optic ribbing that flares out at the rim. Below that, glass threading or a coiled trail wraps around the neck multiple times just above the handle attachment.
The rough pontil mark, a glassy scar on the bottom indicates the piece was entirely free-blown or hand-shaped by a glassblower using a pontil rod. The exterior is heavily decorated with gold leaf gilding or embedded gold-colored mica flakes. This provides a distressed, metallic, or "archaeological" texture. The glass body has a mottled pink or cranberry-colored confetti-like inclusion structure, giving it a soft, multi-toned pastel appearance underneath the gold.
The Romans used these vessels for serving wine and rinsing hands between courses at dinner, as well as for oils and soaps for bathing, all so much more pleasing than the eye-grabbing containers at the grocer.
Signature/Maker’s mark: Nonexistent. See less