The 'Portland Vase' is a masterpiece of Roman glass dating from the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27BC-14AD) discovered in 1582, south-east of Rome inside a sarcophagus of a large burial chamber. This blue-black glass vase with bas-reliefs of white cameo figures was known to Roman tourists in the 17th and 18th centuries as the 'Barbarini Vase' because of its ownership by that family.
In the 1780s, the renowned antiquarian Sir William Hamilton acquired the vase, selling it to the Duchess of Portland. Described by the diarist Horace Walpole as 'perfectly sober, and intoxicated only by empty vases', the Duchess installed the vase in her Portland Museum, Whitehall, in 1784. Following her death, the Duchess's son acquired the vase and loaned it to Josiah Wedgwood who produced ceramic copies. Later entrusted to the British Museum for safekeeping, in 1845 the Portland Vase was smashed into some 200 pieces by a madman. The vase underwent a series of restorations and remains one of the best known exhibits at the British Museum.