WESTERN ASIA, PERHAPS IRAQ, 9TH CENTURY

This beautiful small cup uses concentric rings of two different types of cane. Both are within the same green and yellow surround, but whereas the centre of one just has red within a yellow ring, the other is slightly more complex, containing black within white, red and yellow rings. This second cane type is the same as one used to make a small bowl in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (Carboni, Stefano: Glass from Islamic Lands, London, 2001, no.7b, pp.29-30). Due possibly to its slightly larger size, the present example has a moulded foot where the Kuwait bowl is purely hemispherical.

Three other related pieces are published: a second example in the al-Sabah Collection (Carboni, op.cit., no.7a, p.29; one in the David Collection (Folsach, Kjeld v.: Art from the World of Islam, Copenhagen, 2001, no.340, p.218, and one in the Corning Museum of Glass (Journal of Glass Studies, 19, 1977, no.11, p.170). A larger bowl with very similarly coloured canes was offered in these Rooms 20 April 1999, lot 522. Further information on the background of mosaic glass in the Islamic world is given in the note to that catalogue entry.