Condition
Part of the neck and rim are missing, and they have been filled with a resin. Covered by whitish and iridescent weathering.
Description
Fire-polished, vertical rim; short, wide, conical neck; cylindrical body, tapering toward the flat bottom. From the shoulder and along the body are four relief rows of wide zigzags, each one with six spikes, that continue on the bottom. At the center of the bottom, a solid, elongated pontil scar (1.1 × 0.6 cm) is visible.
Comments and Comparanda
Miniature flasks with cut decoration are known from various sites dated in the Abbasid–Fatimid periods between the late eighth and the eleventh centuries, but mainly between the ninth and tenth centuries. Sites include Sabra al-Mansuriyya, Tunis (Foy, Danièle. 2020. Le verre de Sabra al-Mansuriya (Kairouan, Tunisie), milieu Xe–milieu XIe siècle. Production et consommation: Vaisselle–contenants–vitrages. Archaeology of the Maghreb 1. Oxford: Archaeopress., p. 81, type Sb18, fig. 34); Beit She’an (Hadad, Shulamit. 2005. Islamic Glass Vessels from the Hebrew University Excavations at Bet Shean. Qedem Report 8. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem., p. 41, plate 41, no. 856); Hama (Riis, Poul Jorden. 1957. “Les verreries.” In Poul Jorden Riis and Vagn Poulsen, Hama: Fouilles et recherches de la fondation Carlsberg, 1931–1938, vol. IV. 2: Les verreries et poteries médiévales, 30–116. Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet., p. 531, fig. 141); Fustat (Scanlon, George T., and Ralph H. Pinder-Wilson. 2001. Fustat Glass of the Early Islamic Period: Finds Excavated by the American Research Center in Egypt, 1964–1980. London: Altajir World of Islam Trust., pp. 92, 94, fig. 42c); Samarra (Lamm, Carl Johan. 1928. Das Glas von Samarra. Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra 4. Forschungen zur Islamischen Kunst 2. Berlin: Reimer/Vohsen., p. 73, no. 21:5); Susa (Lamm, Carl Johan. 1931. “Les verres trouvés à Suse.” Syria 12: 358–367., p. 366, plate LXXIX:5; Lamm, Carl Johan. 1930. Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, I–II. Forschungen zur islamischen Kunst 5. Berlin: D. Reimer., p. 156, plate 58:10); Nishapur (Kröger, Jens. 1995. Nishapur: Glass of the Early Islamic Period. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art., p. 132, no. 177). One bottle is in the Benaki Museum (Clairmont, Christoph W. 1977. Catalogue of Ancient and Islamic Glass. Athens: Benaki Museum., p. 93, no. 311, plate XVII); one in the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse, David B. 2014. Islamic Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., p. 107, no. 791); and one in the Israel Museum (Brosh, Naahma. 2003. “Early Islamic Glass.” In Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: The Eliahu Dobkin Collection and Other Gifts, ed. Yael Israeli, 325–370. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., p. 370, no. 506).
Provenance
By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his son, Gert Oppenländer, 1988; 1988–2003, Gert Oppenländer (Waiblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003
Bibliography
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 259, no. 756.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)