Blue Pitcher with Knobbed Decoration

A miniature blue glass oinochoe has a trefoil mouth, vertical handle, and a narrow neck with a ring. The surface of the globular body has a series of projecting knobs of glass, giving it a spiky appearance (hence the name "hedgehog" or "hirsute" oinochoe); the foot made by a spiraling thread.

Distinctive for its spiky surface, this perfume flask was created in an Etruscan workshop that specialized in transforming ingots of glass imported from the Near East into vessels, beads, and jewelry inlays. Made to hold perfume in the form of scented oil, diminutive containers of blue or yellow glass are found in elite burials at the sites of Cerveteri, Orvieto, Chiusi and other early Etruscan sites.