149 - A RARE AND UNUSUALLY WELL-PRESERVED ROMAN GLASS RHYTON, 3RD-4TH CENTURY AD

A RARE AND UNUSUALLY WELL-PRESERVED ROMAN GLASS RHYTON, 3RD-4TH CENTURY AD Published & Exhibited: Martin Kunz (ed.), 3000 Jahre Glaskunst von der Antike bis zum Jugendstil, Kunstmuseum Luzern, 19 July-13 September 1981, p. 102, no. 394 (dated 2nd-3rd century AD) Carefully blown, with a spherical body extending into a long, curved neck terminating in a funnel-shaped mouth. A small conical projection emerges near the base of the neck. The transparent, nearly colorless glass bearing faint iridescence. Provenance: Found in Syria, according to publication above. The Kofler-Truniger Collection, Lucerne, Switzerland. Christie’s London, 5 March 1985, lot 62. Collection of Sylvan and Joan Schefler, New York, acquired from the above, and thence by descent. The Kofler-Truniger Collection, formed in Lucerne by Ernst Kofler (1903-1990) and Marthe Truniger (1918-1999), was an important private collection of ancient glass assembled principally from the mid-1950s through the late 1970s. Comprising several hundred vessels, fragments, and Egyptian glass inlays, the collection encompassed a broad chronological and technical range of ancient glass production. Selected works were exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1964 and later included in a 1981 exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Luzern. The collection was dispersed at Christie’s London in March 1985 in the sale Ancient Glass: Formerly the Kofler-Truniger Collection. Following the sale, a number of notable works entered major public and private collections, including the J. Paul Getty Museum. Sylvan Schefler (1938-2025), born in Belgium and later emigrating to the United States during the Second World War, assembled a carefully curated collection of ancient glass together with his wife Joan, primarily during the 1980s and 1990s, a period marked by a renewed interest in ancient and particularly Roman glass. Over the course of several decades, the couple selectively acquired individual pieces, including works from important historic collections that were returning to the market at the time, among them the Constable-Maxwell Collection (1979), the collections of Ernst Kofler and Marthe Truniger (1985), Benzian (1994), and Giorgio Sangiorgi (1999), who had assembled his collection during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, largely from pieces discovered in Rome. The resulting collection offered a compelling insight into the use and appreciation of glass in antiquity, as well as its enduring appeal to modern collectors. Condition: Very good condition with expected wear, manufacturing irregularities, traces of use, a minute loss to the tip of the small projecting tube, minor hairline cracks, remnants of soil. Given the inherent fragility of artefacts of this type and age, the exceptional state of preservation of the present example makes it a particularly rare survival. Weight: 24.2 g (excl. stand), 244.7 g (incl. stand) Dimensions: Length 18 cm (the rhyton), 20.8 cm (the stand) With an associated acrylic stand. (2) Expert’s note: The present dating follows Christie’s attribution to the 3rd-4th century AD in its 1985 Kofler-Truniger sale, giving weight to its specialist assessment and the collectors’ extensive knowledge of ancient glass. Alternative chronologies should nevertheless be acknowledged. The 1981 Kunstmuseum Luzern catalogue proposed the 2nd-3rd century AD, while also suggesting a possible Islamic provenance. A related vessel in the National Museum of Damascus (see literature comparison), assigned to the 9th-10th century AD, provides a substantially later parallel. Both Christie’s and the Lucerne catalogue record that the present vessel was reputedly found in Syria. Its precise function remains uncertain, with medical use and distillation among the proposed interpretations. The Christie’s specialists for the Kofler-Truniger sale favored a pouring function on account of the small vent. This interpretation finds support in a closely related vessel in the Deutsches Apotheken-Museum, Heidelberg (see literature comparison), dated to the 3rd-4th century AD and interpreted as a container for dispensing small quantities of cosmetic liquids. Due to length restriction on Drouot this entry is shortened. For full description please visit www.zacke.at.