Jug of dark blue glass adorned with a net-pattern, stylized flower-petals, palmettes and a Greek inscription framed in a tabula ansata.
Its piriform body bears three broad decorative friezes, bordered by horizontal ribs, its wide neck is decorated with vertical flutes in low relief and rounded in the bottom, its handle rises in an arch from the shoulder to the rim bearing two ribs, and its foot is decorated with vertical flutes, rounded on the bottom and interspersed with tiny leaves.
The upper decorative frieze, on the shoulder, features a floral scroll from which alternating open and closed palmettes are suspended upside-down. In the central frieze features a diagonal net pattern with the Greek inscription, "ENNIΩN EΠOIEI" ["Ennion Made (It)"] inside a tabula ansata – opposite the handle, and in the lower frieze - vertical flutes rounded on top and interspersed with tiny leaves.
"Ennion's Blue Jug" was blown by an elaborate process involving the use of a three- or four-part mold for the vessel's body and neck, whereas the foot (blown in a separate mold) and the handle were attached after the vessel's body was removed from the mold.
al context/Function:
In the first century CE mold-blowing was still a novelty and it was used for the production of luxury ware mainly imitations of costly silver and gold vessels. A group of glass artists - Aristeas, Neikias, Megas, Jason and Ennion - who employed the blowing technique, used to sign their works in large and conspicuous letters. Ennion was undoubtedly the most gifted of the group - and the most prolific. His "Blue Jug" is perhaps the finest of the thirty or so pieces unearthed so far bearing his signature.