- Title
- Pyxis
- Date Made
- 1st century
- Medium
- Mold-blown glass
- Dimensions
- A) Lid: 1 5/8 x 2 3/8 in. (4.2 x 6.1 cm) b) Body: 2 1/8 x 2 1/8 in. (5.4 x 5.4 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.88.129.48a-b
- Collecting Area
- European Painting and Sculpture: Greek and Roman
- Curatorial Notes
The pyxis is a lidded vessel typically used to hold cosmetics or jewelry, and could be made of materials like wood, ceramic, metal, or glass. This small example is made of pale olive green−colored glass, though the iridescence and cream-colored areas are the result of devitrification, a process by which a glassy substance transforms into a crystalline solid. The body is cylindrical with a flat base and features a frieze of palmettes that alternate upward and downward and is separated by ribs. The conical lid is made of plate green glass instead of the olive green, which indicates that it may not be original to the pyxis. The lid similarly features a frieze of palmettes.
This pyxis was created using the mold-blowing method, a technique that developed at the beginning of the first century CE after the invention of glass-blowing half a century prior. This technique involved placing a lump of molten glass on the end of a blowpipe and then inflating it into a ceramic, metal, or wood mold. When the glass cooled, the mold was then removed to reveal the final shape.
- Selected Bibliography
- Saldern, Axel von. Glass 500 B.C. to A.D. 1900: The Hans Cohn Collection. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1980.
