- 305
A Nishapur Relief Cut-Glass Bottle, Persia, 9th Century
Description
- glass
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
inscriptions
baraka wa ghibta wa surur wa (sic.) li-sahib[ihi] baraka
'Blessing and Felicity and Joy (and) to its owner, blessing'
This complex and refined glass bottle is an ambitious work of early relief-cut glass. It employs mould-blown and cutting techniques to produce a richly decorated object combining resonances of a classical Sasanian aesthetic, in its palmette garland, with a pronouncement of its Islamic context in its Arabic inscription.
Sherds with related cut-decoration of palmettes were excavated at Nishapur (Kröger 1995, pp.144-146). A bottle of closely related form and elaborate relief-cut decoration is in the David Collection, Copenhagen (von Folsach 2001, p.207, no.308; and, Blair and Bloom 2006, p.73, no.13). Another colourless bottle in the David Collection has a variant on this shape but incorporates Kufic into its relief-cut decoration (von Folsach 2001, p.209, no.312; and, Blair and Bloom 2006, p.75, no.15).
Several blown bottles of this form testify to its popularity in glass of this period (Goldstein 2005, pp.110-111, no.130, and 124-127, nos.152-155). It is paralleled in metalwork from Khurasan with both inlaid and chased examples (Pope and Ackerman 1938-9, Vol.VI, plate 1311 b and e). Ceramic examples are decorated in lustre (von Folsach, 2001, p.310, no.492). The prevalence of this form in Persian art, taken with the excavated finds at Nishapur, would suggest a Persian, or even Khurasanian, origin for this bottle. A further related bottle, in colourless glass, blown and relief-cut, is in the collection of the Corning Museum and is reputedly from Bojnurd in Khurasan province. It is yet more reason to propose a Khurasanian provenance for the present bottle, but with the similarity of works produced in Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt in this colourless relief-cut glass it is necessarily an attribution only put forward tentatively.
This lot is accompanied by a scientific analysis certificate confirming a ninth century date of manufacture.