IRAN, 10TH/11TH CENTURY

A number of clear glass bottles of this form are known, including a very fine but fragmentary example excavated at Nishapur (J. Kröger, Nishapur Glass of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1995, nos.227, pp.172-3). A similar broken example is in the L. A. Mayer Memorial Museum, Jerusalen (Rachel Hasson, Early Islamic Glass, Jerusalem, 1979, no.47, p.27). In his discussion of the piece Kröger also however reproduces a drawing published by Lamm of a bottle with very similar decoration excavated at Samarra which is attributed to the 9th century. The one difference appears to be that the Samarra version has a stockier shorter neck; the present bottle has the proportions of the Nishapur example. Vessels of similar shape were also found on the Serçe Limani wreck and are thus dateable to before around 1025 AD (Marilyn Jenkins, "Islamic Glass, a Brief History", Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fall 1986, esp. p.7 and no.29, p.29). Four clear glass bottles of this form, all with different decoration, all broken and repaired, are in the Khalili Collection (Sidney M. Goldstein et al, Glass, London, 2005, nos.226, 227, 230 and 231, pp.186-193). A bottle of this form from the Madina Collection with very similar decoration around the neck but much plainer body was sold in these Rooms 12 October 2004, lot 47; a similar example with lattice design around the body was sold here on 24 April 2004, lot 41, and a simpler but intact bottle was sold here 14 October 1997, lot 331.