Roman Pale Green Glass Double Unguentarium (late 1st - early 2nd Century AD) | Smithsonian Provenance | $1150.00

This fragile glass double balsamarium from the late Imperial period directly connects us to the intimate beauty and cosmetic routines of ancient Mediterranean society. Dating back to the 4th Century AD, this hand-blown container—colloquially known as a kohl tube—served as a specialized everyday vessel designed to store distinct mineral eyeliners, medicinal powders, or viscous salves. The artisan skillfully manipulated a single gather of natural green glass, pressing the tube inward to form twin parallel storage chambers wrapped in a continuous, decorative spiral trail. Over more than fifteen hundred years buried beneath the earth, the mineral-rich soil interacted with the glass fabric, leaving behind a heavily encrusted, calcified patina and an intense, silver-grey iridescence that flashes with pearlescent color. This bottle’s journey spans from a Late Roman household in the eastern provinces to the early archival history of the Smithsonian Institution, proudly bearing its historical pedigree near its base via a prominent, hand-painted black ink ledger number (299761). It stands today as a tactile, remarkably surviving testament to ancient craftsmanship and modern curatorial preservation.  4th Century AD (Late Roman Imperial Period) | Measures 4 ½ inches tall (11.5 cm)

Price $1150.00 | Purchase Page  | See all SKU: 31156

In the domestic life of the Late Roman world, this multi-compartmented vessel functioned as a durable, utilitarian container rather than a fragile luxury ornament, circulating at a price accessible to the average provincial citizen. Designed to hold volatile, powder-based cosmetics like antimony or galena, the twin-cylinder layout allowed a user to separate individual cosmetic tones or applicators within a single, highly portable format. To prevent evaporation and contamination of the packed contents, the small openings were plugged with rolled bundles of papyrus, hand-cut cork, or organic wax stoppers. These vessels were refilled at local markets and reused for decades within daily cosmetic routines. It was typically only a sudden fracture, an accidental household loss, or its deliberate placement as a funerary offering within a tomb that finally consigned the object to the earth, preserving it through the centuries.

Form & Stylistic Integrity

This vessel features a classic free-blown double-barreled silhouette with an applied spiral trail designed to provide a secure grip and structurally reinforces the thin glass walls. Every line preserves the intentional, rapid geometry of ancient Roman glass craftsmanship. The base of the tubes exhibits a distinct, integrated profile identifying it as a product of a traditional free-blown officina (workshop) rather than a mold-formed piece. While lacking a stamped imperial maker's mark, its specific execution aligns perfectly with the standard Syro-Palestinian and Levantine typologies for Late Roman utilitarian cosmetic glass.

For the modern observer, its heavily encrusted, scaly texture does far more than prove the vessel's ancient authenticity; it acts as a visual bridge across millennia, showcasing how centuries of natural decay can accidentally create a masterpiece of timeless beauty. When caught by the light, the weathered surface shifts into a shimmering, fiery display of metallic silvers, soft violets, and rich earth tones.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Physical Place of Origin:

While vessels of this type circulated widely along the trade routes of the Roman Empire, its distinct styling points to the eastern Mediterranean provinces, most likely the famed glassmaking centers of Roman Syria and the Levant. During the 4th Century AD, the coast of modern-day Lebanon and Israel was the heart of the ancient world's glass industry, blessed with high-quality silica sands uniquely suited for large-scale furnace firing. It was in these bustling coastal workshops that artisans mass-produced these essential cosmetic containers before shipping them across the Mediterranean, making this piece a physical survivor from one of the ancient world's most vital industrial hubs.

Unlike modern, flawless glass, the minor imperfections are invaluable fingerprints of the ancient pyrotechnic process. They capture the precise moment the raw Mediterranean sands were melted down at over one thousand degrees Celsius, freezing the chaotic, handcrafted energy of a Roman kiln into an enduring, solid form.

Condition Report & Preservation Status:

This ancient vessel is presented in an excavated, stabilized condition that reflects both its long subterranean burial and its complex archaeological history. As visible in the profile images, the glass body features several historic fractures and an old, stable loss along the entire length of one side of the upper cylinder, which exposes a clean cross-section of its delicate, thin-walled construction. The single remaining intact rim lip remains structurally sound with only minor, expected micro-chipping along the edge. The entire surface, both interior and exterior, is heavily blanketed in an authentic, variegated layer of encrusted burial soil, calcified deposits, and extensive mineral patination. Rather than detracting from the piece, these natural structural losses and deep weathering crusts offer an uncleaned, highly tactile look at the object's ancient passage through time, giving it immense curatorial character for display.

Provenance: Acquired in Damascus, Syria prior to 1916

Smithsonian Accession number: 299761

The physical profile of this vessel provides an extraordinary, rock-solid baseline of institutional provenance that adds massive value for discriminating historians. Inscribed directly onto the weathered glass surface near the base is the hand-painted inventory number 299761, meticulously rendered in permanent black archival ink by early curators. Utilizing a sequential, six-digit cataloging system without a year prefix, this ledger entry represents the classic historic formatting deployed by the United States National Museum—the foundational registration and collecting body for the Smithsonian Institution—throughout the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries.

Within the museum's historical registration workflow, these permanent ink markings indicate that the vessel was formally cataloged into the central collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, specifically within its anthropology and archaeology divisions. This registry mark tracks the bottle's transition into the national collection following its acquisition from an early diplomatic transfer, scientific expedition, or a foundational private estate collection. Long before the implementation of modern cultural heritage regulations, items of this nature were legally gathered, transferred, and permanently preserved within the United States national collection. The physical presence of this unremoved, crisp institutional mark provides a highly coveted "pedigree," guaranteeing both the item's ironclad antiquity and its distinguished legal circulation history.

Price $1150.00 | Purchase Page  | See all SKU: 31156

By visiting our Purchase Page you can: Make Offers & Ask Questions

Please note: All offers will receive a response within 24hrs. If an offer is accepted, we will adjust the price on the site and respond with an email link to purchase.

Click View past sales to explore our Legacy Catalog, a comprehensive reference archive tracking the historical values, condition reports, and provenance of our previously sold Rare Bibles and Antiquities.

Thank you for being a Guardian of the Written Word