Glass fish from Amarna
A little bottle shaped like a fish, made before glassblowing was invented.
The bottle was made for scented oil at the court of the pharaoh Akhenaten around 1350 BC. Glass was then a luxury as precious as gemstones. It is in the British Museum in London.
Materials: Core-formed glass in blue, yellow and white
Manufacture: Hot glass was wound round a core of clay and sand; coloured trails were dragged into waves with a point and the core scraped out.
The wave pattern of trails combed up and down while the glass was soft.
The thick uneven walls – the bottle is formed round a core, not blown.