Lot Essay
This bottle belongs to a small group of rock crystals of similar shape and decoration. The quality of its carving is fine and has a degree of sharpness. A close comparison is in the Keir Collection (Robinson, B.W, et. al., Islamic Art in the Keir Collection, London, 1988, pp. 301-303). Although that is much larger in size, it shares the same basic stout form.
The decoration on these items is ultimately derived from the so-called "bevelled" style which has its origins in the stucco decoration found at the Abbasid city of Samarra. Present consensus attributes these items to Fatimid Egypt, based on the evidence of the Fatimid treasury accounts related by the Mamluk author al-Maqrizi and a number of surviving items inscribed with the names of Fatimid caliphs and officials. These are a ewer in the Church of San Marco Venice in the name of al-Aziz (Curatola, G.: Eredità dell'Islam, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1993, no.61, pp.153-4); another in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in the name of the son of the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqili (Curatola, G.: op. cit., no.62, p.155), and a crescent in the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg in the name of al-Zahir.
The decoration on these items is ultimately derived from the so-called "bevelled" style which has its origins in the stucco decoration found at the Abbasid city of Samarra. Present consensus attributes these items to Fatimid Egypt, based on the evidence of the Fatimid treasury accounts related by the Mamluk author al-Maqrizi and a number of surviving items inscribed with the names of Fatimid caliphs and officials. These are a ewer in the Church of San Marco Venice in the name of al-Aziz (Curatola, G.: Eredità dell'Islam, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1993, no.61, pp.153-4); another in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in the name of the son of the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqili (Curatola, G.: op. cit., no.62, p.155), and a crescent in the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg in the name of al-Zahir.