Tear Bottle Red Contemporary

THE CONTEMPORARY LINE ― Individually-made and flame-worked by a Montana artist.
Approximately 3” in height
Red Quartz cabochon crowns the Red tear bottles
All have hand-carved cork stoppers under the cabochon caps.

The tradition of collecting one’s own tears in a lacrimatory, or tear bottle, dates back to ancient times. Tear bottles are made of terracotta or glass, and can measure up to four inches in height. In ancient Rome and Greece, they were supposedly used to catch the tears of mourners at funerals. It is hypothesized that mourners would place their tears in a tomb to show love and respect for the person who had died. Many lachrimatories found in burial tombs from this era contain unguents (an ointment used topically to soothe skin irritations), and it is unclear what their specific usage was in relation to mourning traditions of the time.