# Ancient Roman Tear bottles



## CreekWalker (Apr 10, 2016)

I saw these small bottles in a private collection today near Charlotte. They are ancient and early glass bottles from the Roman Empire era. The two bottles were used by a grieving person to catch the shed tears, and therefore catch and hold the precious memories of the living with the deceased.  The two standing bottles with flared lips and the one laying down in the foreground are tear jars ,shown with red clay and a rare white clay jar with handle. The other objects shown in this photo and the next pics except for a couple exceptions are ancient and authentic. The largest tear bottle is about four inches tall.


----------



## RIBottleguy (Apr 11, 2016)

Don't believe everything you hear!  Tear bottles are pretty much an urban legend.  Those looks remarkably similar to your everyday Roman utility bottle, which could be used to store almost anything.  Granted, smaller bottles were probably for medicine, poison, or perfume.  If someone brought those to a bottle show and called them tear bottles, they would be laughed out of the building!


----------



## CreekWalker (Apr 11, 2016)

Thanks , possibly someone has a vivid imagination. But that's their story and their sticking to it. 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## CreekWalker (Apr 12, 2016)

The following photos show several other Roman era vases, bronze spear points, oil lamps, a bracelet, and a old rusty railroad spike , which I didn't get an explanation for its place in the display.


----------

