3-045-273 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Bowl, 3rd-2nd century BC. Green Bowl with Knobs and Incised Floral Pattern. Additional Info: With its slightly flaring rim, this turquoise bowl likely served as a drinking cup. The knobs surrounding the cup would have provided the drinker with secure handling. Once the drinker had finished, the bowl was placed face down on its rim. For this reason, the upward-facing base showcases a petal-shaped pattern punctuated by the tear-shaped knobs. Greek artisans who traveled to Persia in the fourth century BC as part of the expansion of Alexander the Great produced this shape of knobbed bowl in glass, clay, and silver; the shape and style continued to be popular throughout the following centuries. A bowl of this size was an elite possession; survival is typically due to deposit in graves as valuable funerary goods. The bowl was first cast in a mold; the pattern and the ridges encircling the rim were then incised as the glass annealed.