Bottles

While mold-blowing as a means of decorating glass had limited success, it did find extensive use in the production of domestic bottles. It had the practical advantage of assuring uniformity of size along the vessel's length, so replicated sets of them could be packed together, in storage or during transport. Many seem to have been made to hold the standard Roman measure of one sextarius (just over 1.1 U.S. pints). Thick-walled and sturdy-handled, these glass bottles traveled far from where they were made, either in crates among a wagon-load of produce on its way to a local market or military camp, or squeezed into the corners of holds on ships that constantly plied the Mediterranean sea-lanes with huge cargoes of grain, wine, and olive oil.

All glassware is shown at a scale of one-to-one unless otherwise stated.

Thick reeded handle of a square bottle
86-35-27

86-35-27
Provenance unknown
Late 1st-early 2nd century A.D.
Bluish green
Gift of George & Henry J. Vaux

63-26-3
Possibly from Carthage
Late 1st century A.D.
Light green
Gift of Mrs. Earl Ford