9. Roman bell-shaped unguentarium, 2nd-3rd century AD
Glass
Height: 16.7cm
11280 IVP
£ 2,200.00
Free-blown in clear, colourless glass. The bell-shaped body with sides that flare outwards toward the flat base, shoulder rounded, tall cylindrical neck with overhanging, folded tubular rim. Small paper note...
Free-blown in clear, colourless glass. The bell-shaped body with sides that flare outwards toward the flat base, shoulder rounded, tall cylindrical neck with overhanging, folded tubular rim. Small paper note found folded inside with illegible inscription and numbered ‘687’. Intact.
Provenance
Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819-1899), St. Nicholas-les-Arras, France; collection no.687Bellon was one of the greatest French collectors of the 19th century. Making his fortune in the textile industry, he began to buy and collect archaeological pieces from the Mediterranean world. Until the end of the 1870s, he accompanied Auguste Ternick in archaeological excavations in the Arras region. It was there that he discovered the Gallo-Roman glassworks which subsequently constituted the most important part of his collection. His collection gained notoriety during the retrospective exhibition of French Art which took place at the Trocadéro in 1896, alongside those of Auguste Dutuit and the Protat printers. Today, part of the collection is kept at the Museum of National Antiquities of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Petit Palais in Paris, the Louvre Museum, and the Berck-sur-Mer museum.
