Picture Day Friday: Auldjo Jug from Pompeii

The Auldjo Jug
Roman c.25-50
Blown and carved glass
H 22.8cm x D 14.3cm
Excavated between 1830-1832

From the British Museum:
"Jug in translucent dark blue and opaque white cameo glass, with trefoil mouth and high handle from rim to shoulder. The back of the neck is flattened and the shoulder slopes outwards to a carination marked by a white ground-line; ovoid body with rounded bottom. Ring-foot with moulded rim. The handle is decorated on the outside with two wide vertical grooves and a ridge at its base. A narrow white horizontal rib divides the shoulder from the body and also acts as a ground line for the shoulder decoration. Carved in white on the shoulder are acanthus leaves with tendrils enclosing rosettes. Birds peck at the tendrils. Two birds are perched either side of the handle pecking at leaves now mostly missing. On the body is a finely executed vine laden with bunches of grapes, intertwined with laurel and ivy with umbrels. In the centre a bird, with wings raised, perches to peck at an ivy leaf.
Broken and mended. Made up of several fragments with the body now considerably restored. Mouth partly broken. Neck handle and base complete except that the latter is chipped. Milky-white film becoming brown in patches covers the exterior of the vase and the interior of the mouth and neck. The white glass is worn away in places. Small bubbles in the blue glass and black flakes and bubbles in the white."


[Image copyrighted by the British Museum.]