Roman Perfume Bottle

Product Description

Also known as balsam jars, these small bottles were intended for the transport and storage of different kinds of perfumed oils used in bathing and personal grooming. The analysis of the remains preserved in some vessels indicates that these cosmetics were made of oils or wax, associated with various plant essences.

This example is characterized by a rather slender shape and a grey, almost silver color very pleasing to the modern eye. The body, with the slightly flattened bottom, is globular, the neck is tall and narrow, the lip is flared and thin.

Largely widespread in the early Imperial period, balsam jars were mass-produced since the free-blowing technique was invented. They nevertheless vary a lot in their shape and in the color of the glass.

The free-blowing technique first originated in the Syro-Palestinian area, in the 1st century B.C., and later spread throughout the Mediterranean basin. This event is to be considered a major technological revolution of antiquity, made possible by the invention and widespread use of the blowpipe, and of furnaces able to resist the temperatures needed for the melting of sands (transparent glass).

This invention completely changed the glass process, making it faster and resulting in mass production. Glass items were no longer regarded as luxury items and, from the late Hellenistic period, glass quickly replaced terracotta, for tableware and storage vessels especially.

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