Condition
Some weathering and milky iridescence. A fragment of the neck has been reattached.
Description
Vertical rim; wide, short neck; horizontal shoulder; cylindrical body; flat bottom. The vessel is made of a thick mass of glass and bears wheel-cut decoration. The upper neck and rim area are cut into a seven-faceted profile. In addition, the following motif is repeated four times around the body: two vertical grooves flanking a diagonally set square with a horizontal stroke running across its center.
On the lower, cylindrical part of the neck, a groove is faintly visible, possibly a tooling mark. At the center of the flat bottom, the circular scar of a solid pontil (W. approx. 1 cm) is visible.
Comments and Comparanda
This type of miniature cylindrical flask in decolorized glass with cut decoration is dated to the ninth–tenth centuries CE. Sites with published parallels include the following: Sabra al-Mansuriyya, Tunisia (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., pp. 44–45, plate 41:856), 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. 215), 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), and Nishapur (Kröger, Jens. 1995. Nishapur: Glass of the Early Islamic Period. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art., p. 150, no. 201). One bottle is in the Benaki Museum (Clairmont, Christoph W. 1977. Catalogue of Ancient and Islamic Glass. Athens: Benaki Museum., p. 93, plate XVII no. 311), 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. 260, no. 762.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)