A Millefiori Glass Jug

 

Height: 10 cm.
Era: Roman
Provenance: unknown.
Photo credit: Nicholas Randall.  
Collection: National Museum of Damascus. 

The millefiori, or "thousand-flower," technique consists of assembling glass rods of different colors into a sort of bundle and then heating them. Before solidifying, these bundles were cut crosswise and stretched, then placed on a glass sheet alongside other "flowers" created using the same process. They were then arranged in a mold shaped like the desired object and subjected to a second firing.

This technique was practiced with great skill in the Eastern Mediterranean—particularly in the coastal regions of Asia Minor—until the beginning of the Islamic period.

Highlights of the National Museum of Damascus. DGAM (Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées de Syrie). Ministère de la Culture, 2006.

Sélim et Andrée Abdul-Hak. Catalogue Illustré du Département des antiquités Gréco-Romaines au Musée de Damas, 1951.