Lot Essay
For a similar small mosaic glass bowl see Stefano Carboni, Glass from Islamic Lands, London, 2001, cat.7a, p.29. In his discussion of mosaic millefiori glass, Stefano Carboni indicates that its "rediscovery happened in Mesopotamia in the ninth century - or perhaps earlier in the 8th century [..]. The only fragments found of millefiori glass found during archaelogical excavations, and probably produced locally, were unearthed in Samarra [..]. These fragments, flat and rather thick [such as the purple ground small tile in this lot] almost certainly belonged to the floor of the throne room and the harem of the palace where they were found, the Jawsaq al-Khaqani, which had been the residence of the Caliphs" (Stefano Carboni, op.cit., p.29). The Jawsaq al-Khaqani was built between 836 and 842 AD.