Bowl
London, England, United Kingdom
The British Museum
About The British Museum, London
Hegira 5th–6th / AD 11th–12th century
1902.5-17.2
Mould-blown, stained glass.
Height 8.5 cm, diameter 10.9 cm
Fatimid
Egypt.
An intact aquamarine-coloured glass bowl with a short flared neck, stained with dark-brown silver that resembles lustre painting. Blown in a mould with 15 vertical ribs, the glass is thick with numerous small bubbles. The decoration consists of vertical lines radiating from the base and a frieze of curling motifs just below the neck, between two horizontal bands. A further band runs around the rim of the bowl. When viewed from below the ribs and rays create a solar design, suggesting that this object may have been used as a lamp, suspended from the neck. The radial pattern recalls earlier glassware, whereas the curling motif is a common type of decoration on stained-glass from this period. Glassmakers in Egypt were particularly prolific during the Fatimid period, using skills inherited from the glass workshops of the Roman period.
View Short DescriptionThis bowl is remarkable: despite being made of finely moulded glass some 900 yeas ago, it remains completely intact. Lustre-painted glass was one of the many luxury objects that were prized during the Fatimid era.
Restrained designs painted with stains are usually attributed to the Fatimid period.
Purchased by the Museum in 1902.
The technique and decoration resemble other Fatimid glassware produced in Egypt. Furthermore, the bowl was found in Atfih in Egypt.
Carboni, S., and Whitehouse, D., Glass of the Sultans, New Haven and London, 2001, cat. no. 109, pp.220–1.
Harden, D. B., and others, The British Museum: masterpieces of glass, a selection, London, 1968, p.112, no. 150.
Lamm, C. J., Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, 2 vols. Forschungen zur islamischen Kunst, 5, Berlin, 1929–30, plate 37:9.
Emily Shovelton "Bowl" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus01;3;en
Prepared by: Emily ShoveltonEmily Shovelton
Emily Shovelton is a historian of Islamic art. She studied history of art at Edinburgh University before completing an MA in Islamic and Indian art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Since graduating she has worked on a number of projects at the British Museum. Other recent work includes editing and writing for a digital database of architectural photographs at the British Library. She is currently working on a Ph.D. on “Sultanate Painting in 15th-century India and its relationship to Persian, Mamluk and Indian Painting”, to be completed at SOAS in 2006. A paper on Sultanate painting given at the Conference of European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, held in the British Museum in July 2005, is due to be published next year.
Copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez
Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.
True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.
MWNF Working Number: UK1 05
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