From what I can tell off of
Yale university's
catalog, this is probably 4th- 5th-century C.E. Earlier ones usually
had more dainty strings of
glass lightly and tastefully
applied to accentuate a vessel, but later on the popular
style was to, in some cases, obscure the vessel with strings of
glass: and, indeed, the strings of
glass on this vessel do take away from the shape.
It was probably a perfume
bottle,
Roman in origin. The
bottle was blown into a mould and finished off while being held by a punty rod. Thus, we have a
sharp pontil scar on the base.
The
bottle exhibits extreme decomposition in some areas that were low in silicates, in which what was the
glass now crumbles; and, in others, retains most of the original surface layer of
glass from where there were heavier silicates. The
bottle has a
crack along the main body and some splits in the strings of
glass. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing this one was an apprentice piece as it just isn't quite pretty or that well-done.
My only real concern with its authenticity is the teal-coloured patination, or minseralisation, on some of it. I have never dug up antique
glass with a tealy patination. It does not fluoresce, but that only helps say, "It's not guaranteed a
fake", as some other falsely
applied patinations do under a U.V. light.