AN ABBASID MINIATURE 'MILLEFIORI' GLASS COSMETIC DISH
MESOPOTAMIA, PROBABLY SAMARA, 9TH CENTURY
Estimate: £3,000 - £4,000
Auction: 11 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
of oval form on a short foot, the base colour in black with brown and white and black decoration
Dimensions
6.8cm diameter
Footnote
This dish and the following one are excellent examples of the millefiori technique. The process of millefiori (“a thousand flowers”) glass work is time-consuming and delicate. Each component, known as a tessera (small tiles made of stone or glass), is sliced from a longer, cylindrical cane of glass that was formed from multiple layers. Originally created to imitate variegated stones like agate, these tesserae patterns were initially concentric circles or spirals, but by the late Roman period, more complex patterns were used. Islamic glassmakers carried on this cane making technique and improved it greatly in 8th and 9th century Abbasid Iraq, where it was used to ornament the floor in front of the Abbasid caliph’s throne in Samarra.
For an almost identical bowl in the Metropolitan Museum, see accession number 1990.185.