Toilet bottle with flattened conical body

Toilet bottle with flattened conical body (form Isings 82 A 2) made of colourless glass with greenish hues and a whitish patina, furnished with an outsplayed, flattened rim with riveted lip perpendicular to the neck; long cylindrical neck with continuous profile and constriction at the bottom (h. 14 cm). Identical to the other piece in this same collection, it shows strongly flattened conical body with bell-shaped wall, convex shoulder tapering outwards and concave base. Because of their long cylindrical neck, these toilet bottles have been defined by French scholars unguentarium-chandelier.

Attested in Italy during the first half of the II century AD, this form spread considerably in the second half of the II – beginning of the III century AD. Scholars are still debating the origin of the production of this type of toilet bottle: for some, it might have been introduced by an oriental atelier, maybe Syro-Palestinian, yet several examples come from the Slav area, Pannonia, Tipasa and Trier (see De Tommaso G.).

Exemplars similar to ours have been found in Northern Italy, thus seemingly confirming the second hypothesis of an Italian origin (see Arveiller-Dulong V., Nenna M. D.), but they are also largely attested in the Gallic area, a fact that may support an other hypothesis, that of the provenance from a city in the valley of Rhone, maybe Lyon (see Massabò B.). What is certain is that starting from the Flavian age and for the whole of the II century AD the concept of the toilet bottle undergoes a gradual change, that will lead to the creation of our type: the neck becomes elongated and the body more and more flattened, thus changing the shape itself of the container.