This marvelous Roman period ribbed glass bowl with white trail decoration is a delightful example of a style that was popular in the early principate. While glassmaking had existed for two millennia prior to the Romans, having been pioneered by other cultures of the Mediterranean, it was not until the late Roman Republic that glassblowing was discovered as a method of mass-producing glass, and would stand as Rome’s great contribution to the art. Glass production flourished under the reign of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, the method of glassblowing having been brought to Italy in this period. Originally, glass was a luxury item for the wealthy and this drove the industry to perfect more efficient and less expensive forms of mass-production. Glass blowing helped produce these conditions. The author Strabo wrote that by his time, a person could buy a glass cup for the cost of a copper coin. Nevertheless, there was always a demand for high quality glass and items like the present bowl exemplified the masterful techniques of the Romans in which a multitude of colors could be incorporated in a blown vessel.

Antiquities
Ancient Roman