This is the rating and price for A Roman Iridescent Colourless Glass Cage-Cup circa 300 A.D.

Description : Blown or cast, wheel-cut and polished, of hemispherical form with rounded base, the outsplayed rim with a projecting openwork flange below consisting of a frieze of approximately one hundred and three perforations, the body of the vessel covered by a network cage consisting of three rings, the outer and middle ring with fourteen circular and oval meshes attached to the cup by bridges concealed by small cruciform elements, the inner ring with seven heart-shaped meshes attached to the cup by bridges concealed by small serrated bars and cruciform elements, originally with a central circular ring attached by seven bridges, with iridescence both inside and outside, (two areas of rim repaired, one area of rim restored), Height 10 cm. (4 in.); Diameter 18.2 cm. (7 1/8 in.) Provenance: Constable-Maxwell Collection. Sold Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, The Constable-Maxwell Collection of Ancient Glass, 5th-6th June 1979, lot 41 Andrew Constable-Maxwell (1906-1990), one of twelve children and also the ninth child of a ninth child, was born in Invernesshire in Scotland of an old Catholic family. Aged twenty he left for America where he worked on Wall Street before joining the Scots Guards on the outbreak of the Second World War. After a distinguished war career, in which he saw active service in the Middle East and Tobruk and also with Sir Fitzroy Maclean in Yugoslovia, he settled in Switzerland. He and his American wife, Nikki, started collecting ancient glass in the 1950s, and together built up one of the most important collections ever to be sold at auction. On Loan: The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980-1985 The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, 1985-1995 Exhibited: The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, Glass of the Caesars, 25th April-15th October 1987 Literature: D.B. Harden, 'Ancient glass from the Constable-Maxwell Collection', Art at Auction - The Year at Sotheby Parke Bernet 1978-1979, London, 1979, p. 288-295, fig. 1 D.B. Harden et al. Glass of the Caesars, exhibition catalogue, 1987, p. 242, no. 136 D. Whitehouse, 'A Recently Discovered Cage Cup', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 30, Corning, 1988, p. 31, fig. 5 (discussed as a comparision) G. Scott, 'Producing Cage Cup Replicas', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 33, Corning, 1991, p. 93-95 G.D. Scott, 'Reconstructing and Reproducing the Hohensulzen Cage Cup', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 35, Corning, 1993, pp. 106-118 Lot 10 (continued) Cage-cups or 'vasa diatreta' (cut vessels), as they were known in the 19th century, were the most expensive form of glassware manufactured during the Roman period and were owned by only the very wealthiest of Roman society. Although they were known from the 1st century A.D., evidence indicates that it was during the 3rd and 4th centuries that they reached the peak of their production. The process of making these extraordinary works of art started by casting or blowing a single thick blank which was then labouriously cut to form an openwork cage connected to the wall by struts or 'bridges'. The craftsmen (diatretarii) were of the highest possible standard and the technique of cutting, grinding and polishing was extremely slow and time-consuming involving as Frederick Neuberg, the German scholar, described '... infinite patience, fanatical concentration and calm deliberation...'. For a detailed description of the manufacturing process see F. Fremersdorf, 'Wie wurden die romischen Diatreglaser hergestellt? Eine Entgegnung', Kolner Jahrbuch 2, 1956, pp. 27-40. Lot 10 (continued) In 1959 Dr Donald Harden and Professor Jocelyn Toynbee divided the known complete and fragmentary cage-cups into two distinct groups. Group A, with figural decoration, with or without cages or inscriptions; and Group B, without figural decoration. The Lycurgus Cup, now in The British Museum, London, is the most remarkable example of Group A, as well as the Hunt Situla in The Treasury of St. Mark's, Venice, and the Fishes and Snails Cup in The Hungarian Historical Museum. The Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup falls into Group B; the nearest complete example is in The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. For a discussion of the Corning example and its comparison with the present example, see D. Whitehouse, 'A Recently Discovered Cage Cup', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 30, 1988, pp. 28-33. Another close parallel is a fragment (now lost) from a cage-cup found in Hohensulzen, Germany, in 1869 in a stone sarcophagus with three other glass vessels. Dr. Fritz Fremersdorf, former Director of the Romisch-Germanischen Museum, Cologne, in 'Figurlich Geschliffene Glaser, einer Kolner Werkstatt des 3. Jahrhunderts', Romisch-Germanischen Forschungen, vol. 19, Berlin, 1951, p. 25, argues convincingly that the sarcophagus was buried around 300 A.D., or slightly later. It is from the Hohensulzen fragment that the Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup has been dated. In his article 'Reconstructing and Reproducing the Hohensulzen Cage Cup', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 35, Corning, 1993, George Scott illustrates the strong similarity between the Hohensulzen fragment, the Constable-Maxwell and the Corning cage-cups. The main difference being that of size: the Hohensulzen fragment being the largest (21 cm. diameter), the Corning one being the smallest (12.1 cm. diameter). Lot 10 (continued) Otto Doppelfeld in his article 'Das neue Kolner Diatretglas' in Germania, vol. 38, 1960, pp 403-417, divides Harden's Group B into five sub-groups based on the presence of an inscription and an overhanging ovolo flange. The Hohensulzen fragment would fall into Sub-Group 3; the Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup, on account of its overhanging flange and lack of an inscription, would fall into Doppelfeld's Sub-Group 4. Of the twenty or so known cage-cups of Group B only nine, not including the Constable-Maxwell example, are recorded in anything other than a fragmentary state. They include one in The Antiquarium Museum, Munich; one in The Civico Museo Archaeologico, Milan known as the 'Trivulzio' Cage-Cup; one in The Landesmuseum, Trier; one in The Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid; one in The Romisch-Germanischen Museum, Cologne; one in The Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; and the Corning cage-cup. The place of manufacture has always been and still is a matter of conjecture and debate amongst scholars. In their article 'The Rothschild Lycurgus Cup', in Archaeologia, vol. 97, 1959, Donald Harden and Jocelyn Toynbee noted eighteen near complete cage-cups and fragments of cage-cups from Group B, eight being from Germany, two from Italy, one from Spain, one from Greece, one from Hungary and one from England. They also noted that if, because of their distribution pattern, cage-cups are considered to come from one central place of manufacture then it most likely would be one of the leading glassmaking areas. Harden and Toynbee were only able to guess where this may have been and suggested Italy, Egypt and Syria as possibilities. On consideration it was felt that the quality of glassmaking in both Syria and Egypt had deteriorated by this time leaving Italy as the likely centre. However, Christine Kondoleon (Harvard) wrote in her article 'An Openwork Cage Cup' in Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 21, Corning, 1979, that '..... some specialists consider the diatreta as products of a Cologne workshop...' and Sotheby's catalogue entry of June 1979 read '..... Less certain, however is their place of manufacture, although the Rhineland must be considered a strong possibility'. Having said that, there have been a large number of fragments which have come to light over the years, and it does now seem that cage-cups were distributed all over the ancient world. As was noted earlier the closest parallel is the cage-cup at The Corning Museum of Glass. See D. Whitehouse, 'A Recently Discovered Cage Cup', Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 30, Corning, 1988. Indeed David Whitehouse speculates that '... Such is the degree of similarly that I am tempted to suppose that the two cage cups were made in the same workshop.' However when comparing them both there are two very noticable differences. The Constable-Maxwell cup is nearly twice the size, and the Corning one has a metal fitting around the collar and a metal lamp-hanger. The latter fact raises the question whether they may have been used as hanging lamps rather than drinking vessels, and David Whitehouse concludes that, due to the wide splayed rim making both cups unsuitable for drinking or pouring and also the lack of any inscription, they indeed may have been meant to be suspended. There is, however, no evidence of a metal collar on our example. Despite all the different scholarly opinions surrounding this remarkable object what can be said with all certainty is that the Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup is the centre-piece of the British Rail Collection of Ancient Glass. To quote Donald Harden of The British Museum in Art at Auction 1978-1979 when reviewing it '.... more than any other single item [it] attracted the public's attention and the envy of collectors...' Estimate on request.
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