Ribbed Glass Bowl

This type of vessel represents the Roman manufacturing breakthrough of slump molding, which made high-quality glassware broadly affordable for the first time. The artisan formed ribs on a hot glass disk before the disk was placed on a convex form. The resulting bowl shape was slowly cooled and then turned on a lathe to polish the rim and apply incised detail. Finally, the bowl was fire-polished in the furnace. It is in pristine condition.