This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Hebron glasses

Location:

Vienna, Austria

Holding Museum:

Weltmuseum Wien

About Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna

Date of Object:

1970s

Museum Inventory Number:

189.467 and others

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Glass

Dimensions:

H: max. 19.5cm

Provenance:

Palestine*, Hebron/al-Khalīl

Description:

Since the Middle Ages, the people of Hebron have manufactured glass which has been characterised by its elegance. Around 1840, glass factories began supplying the households of Palestine with bottles and other glass wares for every day use. For Christian pilgrims, colourful and inexpensive jewellery was produced, which they take back home, either to Western Asia or to Europe.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the "Hebron glasses" still find rapid turnover amongst tourists and pilgrims. The forms of the hand-blown bottles, cups and little jugs are simple. Their colours are based on precious stones: cobalt blue, bottle green, turquoise, amber yellow, or rose. In the meantime, most of the shops are barricaded, the doors of the houses sealed. A large area of the old city is closed off to Palestinians, and Hebron is divided into a Jewish and a Palestinian zone. The flow of pilgrims and tourists has dried up, and the old "Hebron glasses" have become the trademark of Palestinian identity.

How date and origin were established:

Entry in the TMS digital collection database, documents from the estate of the late collector.

How Object was obtained:

Estate of the late Ernst Degasperi, Vienna, donated by the heiress Therese Degasperi, 2012

How provenance was established:

Entry in the general inventory book, documents from the estate of the late collector.

Selected bibliography:

Steinmann, Axel, "Hebron", in Christian Schicklgruber (ed), Weltmuseum Wien, exhibition catalogue, Vienna: Weltmuseum Wien, 2017: 216-217.

Citation of this web page:

 "Hebron glasses" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;at;Mus23;48;en

MWNF Working Number: AT3 48