AN EARLY ISLAMIC MINIATURE GLASS PERFUME BOTTLE
WESTERN ASIA, PROBABLY PERSIA, 9TH/ 10TH CENTURY
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000
Auction: 11 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
colourless glass covered in a layer of iridescence, of pear-shaped on a flat base with faceted spout, moulded and tooled with a frieze of repeat arched designs around the body, pontil mark on base
Dimensions
6.2cm high
Footnote
These examples of early Islamic glass - as petite as they are, with none over seven centimetres in height - represent the skill and versatility of glassworkers in this period. All three were made by cutting glass blanks using a wheel or drill, a technique most closely associated with the pre-Islamic Sassanian empire. This tradition survived the arrival of the Muslim armies and by the ninth-tenth century had become the foremost manner of decorating Islamic glass.
The first vessel (Lot 8) employs a shape which was clearly popular in the early mediaeval period, when these were used as rose-water sprinklers. Not only is this shape found in glass, but it is also found in ceramic as well as metalwork. The horizontal mouldings used to delineate different sections of the vessel find comparison with metal pieces, suggesting that this might have been the glassworker’s primary inspiration [see M. Jenkins-Madina, "Islamic Glass: A Brief History” in MMA Bulletin vol. 44, no. 2 (Fall 1986), p. 31, no. 32]. Although also decorated using the same technique, the aesthetic of the second vessel (Lot 9) is quite different. Ultimately derived from the facet-cut bowls produced under the late Sassanian empire in Iran and exported as far as Japan and China, the cutting here creates a series of slightly concave hexagonal shapes in an overall honeycomb pattern. The remarkable uniformity of the hexagons and the care taken to scoop out their centres demonstrates the maker’s painstaking care over this piece [ see Carboni, S., Glass from Islamic Lands: the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait National Museum, Thames & Hudson: 2001, pp. 32-5, cats. 9a-d]. The last piece (Lot 10), which has six facet-cut sides each with a central oval in relief, is closely paralleled by an example in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (LNS 32 G, for which see ibid., p. 112, cat. 2.8), and in the David collection, Copenhagen (object number 32/1973).