Toilet bottle with flattened conical body

Intact toilet bottle with flattened conical body (form Isings 82 A 2) of colourless blown glass with greenish hues and a whitish patina. It is characterized by an outsplayed rim with rounded edge, by a long cylindrical neck with continuous profile and a choke at the base, and also by a low, strongly flattened conical body with bell-shaped wall, convex shoulder tapering outwards and concave base. Because of its long cylindrical neck, this type of toilet bottle has been defined by French scholars unguentarium-chandelier.

Attested in Italy during the first half of the II century AD, this form spread considerably in the second half of the II – beginning of the III century AD. Scholars are still debating the origin of the production of this toilet bottle form: for some, it might have been introduced by an oriental atelier, maybe Syro-Palestinian, yet several come from the Slav area, Pannonia, Tipasa and Trier.

Exemplars similar to ours have been found in Northern Italy, thus seemingly confirming the second hypothesis of an Italian origin, but are also largely attested in the Gallic area, a fact that may support an other hypothesis, that of the provenance from a city in the valley of Rhone, maybe Lyon.

What is certain is that starting from the Flavian age and for the whole of the II century AD the concept of the toilet bottle undergoes a gradual change, that will lead to the creation of our type: the neck becomes elongated and the body more and more flattened, thus changing the shape itself of the container.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: C. Isings, Roman Glass from Dated Finds, Groningen-Djakarta, 1957; De Tommaso G., Ampullae vitreae, Roma 1990; Massabò B, Magiche trasparenze. I vetri dell’antica Albingaunum, guida alla mostra, Milano 2001; Arveiller-Dulong V., Nenna M. D., Vetres antiques du Museé du Louvre, II vol., Paris 2005.