Bottle, colorless glass, with relief-cut decoration in a green overlay (modern neck)
Iraq or Iran; 9th-10th century
H: 15 cm
The greenish decoration was achieved by cutting away the outer layer of glass except where the pattern appears in soft, beveled relief. The pattern, which is characteristic of early Abbasid art and was used on materials of many types, was first developed for stucco reliefs that decorated buildings in the capital of Samarra. The bottle’s stylized birds and entwined, abstract vegetal ornaments are other motifs that frequently appear in the art of the period.
The bottle was supposedly found in Nishapur, but might have been made in Iraq, where fragments of this type of glass have been excavated.
Inv. no. 3/1971
Published in:
André Leth: Davids Samling. Islamisk kunst = The David Collection. Islamic Art, København 1975, pp. 17-18;
The arts of Islam : Hayward gallery, 8 April - 4 July 1976, London 1976, cat.no. 131;
Sidney M. Goldstein, Leonard p. Rakow, Juliette K. Rakow: Cameo glass: masterpieces from 2000 years of glassmaking, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning 1982, fig. 12;
Kjeld von Folsach: Davids Samling gennem 24 år, 1962-1985 = The David Collection: a 24-year period: 1962-1985, København 1985, pp. 44-45;
Art from the World of Islam. 8th-18th century, Louisiana, Humlebæk 1987, cat.no. 19;
Kjeld von Folsach: Islamic art. The David Collection, Copenhagen 1990, cat.no. 220;
Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk and Peder Mortensen (eds.): Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal: the history and culture of the Islamic world, The National Museum, Copenhagen 1996, cat.no. 142;
Markus Hattstein and Peter Delius, (eds.): Islam: art and architecture, Berlin 2000, p. 122;
Stefano Carboni and David Whitehouse: Glass of the Sultans, Corning Museum of Glass, New York 2001, cat.no. 89;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat.no. 308;
Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom (eds.): Cosmophilia. Islamic Art from the David Collection, Copenhagen, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston 2006, cat.no. 13;
Jacqueline du Pasquier: Histoire du verre: les chefs-d'oeuvre de l'islam, Paris 2007, pp. 10-11;
