A Free-blown trailed-glass hanging lamp, Syria, Umayyad, 7th/8th century

composed of translucent light-green glass, base with slight kick, of baluster form with a globular body and thin neck widening into a flattened globular cavity with flared rim, the shoulder, neck and base with fine coiled trailing of a deep green colour

In good condition, intact, areas of irridescence, some trailed glass heads partly broken near rim, thin trailings on body partly broken, hairline cracks inside glass, as viewed.
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At once decorative and functional, the delicately applied trailing designs on the present hanging lamp cover almost its entire surface. Composed of deep blue glass, these trailing motifs act as contrasts to the yellowish body of the vessel. Stefano Carboni links this type of decoration to the late Roman period, the production of which was extended into the early Islamic period, and at first limited to: "areas that were once part of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, including Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia" (Carboni 2001, p. 163).

A similar eighth to early ninth-century hanging lamp is in the al-Sabah collection, see Carboni 2001, p.166, cat. no.38a.