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Unguentarium (Kohl flask)
ca. 1550 BCE - 525 BCE5 1/2 in. x 1 1/8 in. (13.97 cm x 2.86 cm)
, Egyptian
Object Type:
Decorative Arts, Utilitarian Objects
Creation Place:
Africa, Egypt
Medium and Support:
glass
Credit Line:
Carleton College Art Collection
Accession Number:
1997.527
This beautiful glass vessels was used to store unguents or scented oils for personal adornment. You can imagine this small containers, like perfume vials, carried on the body.
The unguentaria demonstrate the earliest use of glass, dating back to ancient Egypt. They show two different early glass techniques. The one on the right was formed around a clay core, and then molten strands of glass were wrapped around it and shaped with a little bronze tool. When the piece cooled, the core was carefully broken out. Transparent leaded glass, developed later during the Ptolemaic period, was blown rather than formed around a core.
Through Carleton's collection generally focuses on modern material, we have groups of wonderful objects like these from the ancient Near East and Africa.
- Laurel Bradley, Carleton College Calendar, 2005
The unguentaria demonstrate the earliest use of glass, dating back to ancient Egypt. They show two different early glass techniques. The one on the right was formed around a clay core, and then molten strands of glass were wrapped around it and shaped with a little bronze tool. When the piece cooled, the core was carefully broken out. Transparent leaded glass, developed later during the Ptolemaic period, was blown rather than formed around a core.
Through Carleton's collection generally focuses on modern material, we have groups of wonderful objects like these from the ancient Near East and Africa.
- Laurel Bradley, Carleton College Calendar, 2005
Keywords
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This object has the following keywords:
- ancient - In the discipline of art history, typically refers to the period in Europe, Asia Minor, and north Africa, prior to the fall of the western Roman Empire. The term is also sometimes applied more generally to prehistory and to early cultures in other areas of the world.
- decorative arts - Refers to works that are primarily utilitarian in form or function, but that have aesthetic value provided by the design, decoration, or embellishment. They may include ceramics, furniture, and other household or utilitarian objects. They are distinct from "fine arts," which were traditionally considered to require more extensive training and were restricted to the media of painting, sculpture, drawing, and architecture.
- glass (material) - An amorphous, inorganic substance made by fusing silica (silicon dioxide) with a basic oxide; generally transparent but often translucent or opaque. Its characteristic properties are its hardness and rigidity at ordinary temperatures, its capacity for plastic working at elevated temperatures, and its resistance to weathering and to most chemicals except hydrofluoric acid. Used for both utilitarian and decorative purposes, it can be formed into various shapes, colored or decorated. Glass originated as a glaze in Mesopotamia in about 3500 BCE and the first objects made wholly of glass date to about 2500 BCE.
- sculpture (visual work) - Works of art in which images and forms are produced in relief, in intaglio, or in the round. It refers especially to those objects that retain the quality of being tangible objects or groups of objects. It refers particularly to art works created by carving or engraving a hard material, by molding or casting a malleable material, or by assembling parts to create a three-dimensional object. It is typically used to refer to large or medium-sized objects made of stone, wood, bronze, or another metal. Small objects are typically referred to as "carvings." As works become more diffused in space or time, or less tangible, use specific terms, such as "mail art" or "environmental art."
- three-dimensional - Having, or appearing to have, the three dimensions of length, width, and height.
Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Curious Objects: Learning and Teaching with the Carleton Art Collection , 9/6/2022 - 11/16/2022
Dimensions
- overall Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (140 x 29 mm)
Portfolio List
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This object is a member of the following portfolios:
