DOI article:
Pier, Garrett Chatfield: Saracenic glass
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69602#0273
Saracenic Glass.
By Garrett Chatfield Pier-New York.
With 8 Figures on 2 Plates (XXXVII—XXXVIII).
läjfioth ,n Egypt and the Mesopotamian Plain,
glass was known at an early date.
An extant example of Egyptian glass dates
from the reign of Amenhotep I, circa 1500 B. C.
Some fifty years later, during the reign of
Thutmose III, glass was comparatively common.
This is especially true in the case of glass pastes
colored to imitate certain of the semi-precious
stones, such as lazuli, beryl and turquoise. Under
Amenhotep III and IV, 1400—1350 B. C., the
Egyptians reached their highest degree of technical
skill, both in the päte-de-vert and festoon types.
And it is to Egypt that we must turn for an
historical reference to the early glass of Meso-
potamia. Thutmose III, in his chronicles of a
long series of conquests in Asia, has left us a
record of various tributes or imposts exacted.
Among these mention is made of “the false
lazuli of Babylon”. In fact, the special pains
taken to distinguish between the real and false
material shows that the paste imitations were
very commonly manufactured by the craftsmen
of that ancient city.
Of this glass we have nothing, but the opaque
glass of Egypt continued well down to Roman
days, culminating in the world-famed murrhine
glass of Alexandria.
About the Second Century B. C., translucent
blown or crystal-glass first appears, the Output
of the various great centers of the industry being
enormous. But with the downfall of Constanti-
nople, the Alexandrine, Tyrian and Sidonian
factories passed into the possession of the
Saracens.
Almost immediately we meet with our first
dated example of Saracenic gilt and enamelled
glass in a pilgrim’s-bottle now in the collection
of Hakki Bey in Paris.
As Schmoranz points out1, it bears the renk
of the Sultan Nasir ed-Din Mahmud ibn Mu-
hammed, who reigned about 1216 A. D.
1 Schmoranz, G., “Old Oriental Glass Vessels”, Lon-
don and Vienna, 1899.
Another early example, — of a type to which
we would more especially refer, — is the tazza-
shaped dish, illustrated in Figure I, a remarkably
beautiful example of enamelling and gilding, now
preserved with eight other examples of Sara-
cenic glass, in the Edward Clarence Moore Col-
lection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upon
this dish we find the armorial symbol of the
Emir Badr ed-Din ez-Zahiri, a servant of the art-
loving Sultan Beybars I, 1260—1277 A. D. It
is decorated in colors and gold with a short
Arabic couplet, a band of seated nobles
feasting and playing musical Instruments, and a
double band representing lions in pursuit of
antelopes and hares, the latter in some cases
having their heads turned en face. The deco-
ration is delicate in design and execution; the
gilding lavishly employed. It is quite in the style
of the pilgrim’s bottle in St. Stephan’s, Vienna;
the ewer belonging to the Rothschild Collection
in Paris, and the goblet in the Löwenburg1.
The contrast between this and the far different
type seen in Figure 2, is quite apparent. In the
latter the dominant note is exaggeration in style
and the use of opaque enamels, as against the
elaborate use of gilding and minuteness of detail
seen in the formen Again, the designs seen upon
the former type bear a close resemblance to those
frequently employed by the metal-workers of
Mossul; in fact, one of the Mossul lamps now
in the Metropolitan Museum is decorated with
a design almost identical with that seen in Figure I.
Another example, a metal jug made by “Ahmad
al-Dakali of Mossul”, and dated in the year
1226 A. D., is similarly ornamented. Dr. Martin
has figured2 3 a bowl made for the Sultan al-Muizz
Izz ed-Din Aibek, 1250—1257 A. D., a piece of
metalwork with a very similar band of coursing
animals, and which is doubtless the work of a
craftsman of Mossul.
1 Both illustrated by Schmoranz. Op. Cit. Plates IV,
XXX, and XXXII.
3 Martin, Dr. F. R., “Ältere Kupferarbeiten aus dem
Orient”, Plate 2.
26*
189
By Garrett Chatfield Pier-New York.
With 8 Figures on 2 Plates (XXXVII—XXXVIII).
läjfioth ,n Egypt and the Mesopotamian Plain,
glass was known at an early date.
An extant example of Egyptian glass dates
from the reign of Amenhotep I, circa 1500 B. C.
Some fifty years later, during the reign of
Thutmose III, glass was comparatively common.
This is especially true in the case of glass pastes
colored to imitate certain of the semi-precious
stones, such as lazuli, beryl and turquoise. Under
Amenhotep III and IV, 1400—1350 B. C., the
Egyptians reached their highest degree of technical
skill, both in the päte-de-vert and festoon types.
And it is to Egypt that we must turn for an
historical reference to the early glass of Meso-
potamia. Thutmose III, in his chronicles of a
long series of conquests in Asia, has left us a
record of various tributes or imposts exacted.
Among these mention is made of “the false
lazuli of Babylon”. In fact, the special pains
taken to distinguish between the real and false
material shows that the paste imitations were
very commonly manufactured by the craftsmen
of that ancient city.
Of this glass we have nothing, but the opaque
glass of Egypt continued well down to Roman
days, culminating in the world-famed murrhine
glass of Alexandria.
About the Second Century B. C., translucent
blown or crystal-glass first appears, the Output
of the various great centers of the industry being
enormous. But with the downfall of Constanti-
nople, the Alexandrine, Tyrian and Sidonian
factories passed into the possession of the
Saracens.
Almost immediately we meet with our first
dated example of Saracenic gilt and enamelled
glass in a pilgrim’s-bottle now in the collection
of Hakki Bey in Paris.
As Schmoranz points out1, it bears the renk
of the Sultan Nasir ed-Din Mahmud ibn Mu-
hammed, who reigned about 1216 A. D.
1 Schmoranz, G., “Old Oriental Glass Vessels”, Lon-
don and Vienna, 1899.
Another early example, — of a type to which
we would more especially refer, — is the tazza-
shaped dish, illustrated in Figure I, a remarkably
beautiful example of enamelling and gilding, now
preserved with eight other examples of Sara-
cenic glass, in the Edward Clarence Moore Col-
lection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upon
this dish we find the armorial symbol of the
Emir Badr ed-Din ez-Zahiri, a servant of the art-
loving Sultan Beybars I, 1260—1277 A. D. It
is decorated in colors and gold with a short
Arabic couplet, a band of seated nobles
feasting and playing musical Instruments, and a
double band representing lions in pursuit of
antelopes and hares, the latter in some cases
having their heads turned en face. The deco-
ration is delicate in design and execution; the
gilding lavishly employed. It is quite in the style
of the pilgrim’s bottle in St. Stephan’s, Vienna;
the ewer belonging to the Rothschild Collection
in Paris, and the goblet in the Löwenburg1.
The contrast between this and the far different
type seen in Figure 2, is quite apparent. In the
latter the dominant note is exaggeration in style
and the use of opaque enamels, as against the
elaborate use of gilding and minuteness of detail
seen in the formen Again, the designs seen upon
the former type bear a close resemblance to those
frequently employed by the metal-workers of
Mossul; in fact, one of the Mossul lamps now
in the Metropolitan Museum is decorated with
a design almost identical with that seen in Figure I.
Another example, a metal jug made by “Ahmad
al-Dakali of Mossul”, and dated in the year
1226 A. D., is similarly ornamented. Dr. Martin
has figured2 3 a bowl made for the Sultan al-Muizz
Izz ed-Din Aibek, 1250—1257 A. D., a piece of
metalwork with a very similar band of coursing
animals, and which is doubtless the work of a
craftsman of Mossul.
1 Both illustrated by Schmoranz. Op. Cit. Plates IV,
XXX, and XXXII.
3 Martin, Dr. F. R., “Ältere Kupferarbeiten aus dem
Orient”, Plate 2.
26*
189