Glassmaking originated in Mesopotamia almost four millennia ago. The innovation of glassblowing in the mid-first century BC further aided glassware’s popularity. This new technique brought about more shapes and designs, making the craft of glassmaking more versatile and affordable. The early first century AD witnessed the introduction of glass manufacturing to the Roman Empire, where workshops proliferated and glassblowers were able to test the boundaries of the medium. Glass vessels also began to populate households to complement luxurious objects of gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones.

Although ancient glass can be colorful and intricate, the simplicity of this free-blown glass dish, which retains its natural color, showcases its handsomeness and utility. The dish could have served as part of the tableware for a Roman banquet, the latter on a scale from simple to sumptuous. This vessel has retained its natural coloring and is untouched by iridescence – a multicolor effect on the surface, which is a natural chemical reaction of the glass to its burial conditions, such as soil and humidity.

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), an American artist renowned for his work with stained glass, imitated this prismatic appearance on his designs by giving each pane of glass a different color.

This dish allows us to ponder the Roman poet Horace’s (65–8 BC) exclamation in his ode: “O spring of Bandusia, brighter than crystal” (Carmina, 3.13.1). His remark (“brighter than crystal”) confirms the Roman appreciation of not only the clear (absence of) “color” of glass but also its precious fragility–as exemplified by this impressive transparent dish from the collection of the donor’s family.