404. Flask

Condition

Fully preserved. Cracked and mended. Bluish-gray surface in areas with calcination; black and off-white weathering. Interior covered with a black layer of weathering.

Description

Flat, fire-polished rim, smooth at the periphery, rough toward the opening, probably as a result of weathering; globular neck and sphero-conical body; small, flat bottom, possibly the area where the pontil was attached.

Comments and Comparanda

This vessel belongs to a group of thick-walled glass flasks that have been identified with ceramic “grenades” of the same shape and size, sometimes with molded decoration, which are well known in the Islamic word (Ettinghausen 1965, pp. 218–229). It has been assumed that they were either actual grenades, or that they were used for the transportation of valuable liquids, or, more plausibly, that they were beer containers (fuqqāʿa in Arabic) (Ghouchani and Adle 1992, pp. 72–92; Whitehouse 2014, pp. 92–93, no. 767). For other glass parallels, see Mostafa 1959, pp. 89–92; Ettinghausen 1965, pp. 218–229; von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 255, no. 746; Maddison and Savage-Smith 1997, nos. 210, 211; Carboni 2001, pp. 212–213, no. 53b; Valiulina 2005, p. 48, fig. 21:3; Whitehouse 2014, pp. 92–93, no. 767.

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

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 255, no. 745.

Exhibitions

Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)