#1st century ad
Rare millefiori Bracelet, Circa 1st century AD,
In the 1st century AD, when glass production and trade had spread around the Mediterranean, Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, brought skilled glassworker slaves from Judaea, Syria, and Egypt to the Empire.
These master craftsmen not only carved gem-like glass cameos and created Hellenistic-style pieces through traditional techniques like core-and-rod, slumping, and casting.
They also introduced the revolutionary art of free-blowing glass. Inflating gobs of molten glass with blowpipes, then working them while controlling their temperatures, produced smooth, thin-walled, bubble-like creations. This dynamic, minute-to-minute method inspired a variety of innovative shapes and styles.
Romans appreciated glass not only for its practicality, but also for its beauty. Vases, for instance, might be marbled, swirled or, through the addition of mineral additives, replicate semi-precious stones.
Bottles and pitchers might be smooth, textured, lathe-cut, or ornamented with delicate frilled glass trailings. Bowls might be ribbed, rimmed, molded, or fashioned from “millefiori” (thousand flowers) discs.
These mosaic-like pieces, created by patterning glass threads in hollow glass rods, then stretching, slicing, and fusing them together, also enhance plaques, rings, beads, bracelets, and brooches. These ancient pieces were so attractive, in fact, that master glassmakers in Murano, Italy, have recently revived the complex technique.
Mainly cerulean blue, with red, navy blue, and yellow inclusions,
3″ W x ¾” H,
Image courtesy Artemis Gallery and LiveAuctioneers
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A Roman Pale Blue Glass Pillar-moulded Bowl,
Circa 1st Century BC/AD,
5 1⁄8 in. (13 cm.) diam.
Courtesy: Christie’s
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Gaius Caesar Part of Cenotaph Frieze, 1st Century A.D. Augustan Period, Antalya Museum #Roman #Archeology
Gaius Caesar was the grandson of Augustus, whom he later adopted with the intention that he would succeed him to the throne. Unfortunately, Gaius Caesar died before Augustus, at the age of 24, from a wound he received during battle in Limyra on the 21st of February A.D. 4. His remains were sent to Rome and buried in Augustus’ Mausoleum. This is one of the 68 frieze fragments excavated 1971 and 1974 that was part of the Cenotaph Limyrians constructed in honor of Gaius Caesar’s memory. It is believed that this part of the frieze depicts the ceremonial procession in commemoration of the Dioscourids, that took place on the 15th of July, 6 B.C. in Rome, when Gaius Caesar had the titles, “the successor of the throne” and “Princeps iuventutis”, meaning the same. - Antalya Museum
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Gladiator helmet, 1 st century AD. found in Pompeii. Naples National Archaeological Museum. Photo by my friend.
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Roman Blue Glass Bird Bottle, 1st Century AD
3.25 inches (8.23cm) high. Glass bottles of this type are identified as “gutti” and were used to dispense small quantities of wine or oil.
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