The date motif was one of the most elegant in the Ancient Roman vetreria (glassmaking). The symbolism imbued in it, of luxury and exoticism, as well as the intense colour of its pulp, resembling the golden light of the Middle East, are perhaps the elements that made it so popular within the artistic world.
Through the Roman furnaces, it assumed a particular iconographic role, where it was converted into a refined container for balms and precious ointments, sophisticated alternates for those small fruits, which were commonly donated in the capital as auspicious gifts on New Year’s Day.
It is still not known for sure for which commercial products these containers were used, but they were probably the renowned essences for which the Phoenicia was celebrated.
Among the archaeological finds in our possession today, there are dates from Aquileia, others from Bologna, Rome, Ercolano and Pompeii.
On a morphological point of view, these specimens show characteristics very similar to one another, although some are distinctively more naturalistic and others more abstract.
Yellow/amber and brown/yellowish were the predominant colours, aiming to resemble the natural colour of the fruit, and often the interiors were covered with opaque, white glass.