DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36284#0043
35
collection into the possession of Herr Franz Sarre of Berlin
—both have their lids ; the one in the British Museum
(Slade Bequest, No. 335) has lost its loot ; and Captain
Myers is in possession of the lid only of a similar bowl.*
This seems to have formed part of a vessel of more modern
date (Sec. XIV ?) and is adorned with a blue-enamelled
frieze of written characters, round and slender, three inter-
esting armorial-medallions breaking the continuity of the
inscription. These medallions (Ag. 33) represent a golden
writing-tablet in a held which is enamelled of a yellowish
Aesh-colour.s The upper and lower compartments os the
medallion are red.
The lidded bowl in the British Museum, which, to
judge from the slightly undulant form of the lower part
of the body, seems to have had a similar ribbed foot to
that of Badr-ad-dln az-Zahiri—-may possibly be the oldest
example of the group. It is perhaps a work of the
Arst half of the thirteenth century. There is a fairly
sufficient richness in the embellishment, although it is very
sparingly enamelled, apart from the red outlines of the gilt
design. There is around the broad part of the vessel,
a frieze comprising eight fields edged with blue bands. In
those fields some remarkable figures are designed, of griffins
and sphinxes with ornamented bodies, in the manner of
Fie. 33.
Ag. 64 from the bottle belonging to M. Vapereau in Paris,
but apparently older in style. Whether these fantastic
winged creatures represent Al-borak, on whose back the
prophet was borne to the Seventh Heaven; or the fabulous
bird 'Anka of the Muhammadan Paradise, that animal
which had the legs of a stag, the tail of a tiger, and the
face of a woman, and which the superstitious Arabs
endowed with wings, and so much strength that it could
soar aloft with an elephant as easily as an eagle could carry
away a mouse—we know not. These fanciAil Agures
* A footed bowl (the lid missing) was exhibited not long ago in the
German Museum at Nurnberg, and has been reproduced by Essenwein
in his " Kunst und kunstgewerbliche Denkmale des Germanischen
Museums/' on plate XV, as " an Oriental vessel (1230-1260) Egyptian
work "—greatest diameter, 260 mm. It is designated by Mr. Lane Poole,
Eg. 94, as "Vase of Sultan Baibars II." In our own judgment, formed
after a thorough and careful examination of the original, this bowl does
not belong to the class of old Oriental glass-work.
*j* It was probably intended to be white, but the tint was altered by
the action of the Ere.
appear however frequently enough in Perso-Arab decora-
tions, particularly in wood-carvings and metal-work.*
The decoration of this lidded and lofty-footed bowl is
based on a division into horizontal compartments. A broad
frieze, broken by medallions, encircles the lid, and another
surrounds the broad part of the vessel. On the bowl of
Badr-ad-dln az Zahiri, corresponding friezes are found,
besides which slight bands of Aligree encircling the edge,
and in three places the foot of the vessel; while on the
lower part of the body (—which in the British Museum
lidded bowl is naked) there are three ornamental medallions
in variegated enamel. The medallions alternate with the
same number of ornamental motifs symmetrically disposed,
but without any exact boundaries, in the style of those on
the lower part of the mantle of the large goblet on
plate XXXI.
The deep plates and Aat basins are divided into
concentrical compartments, and within these compartments,
the decoration radiates, so that the medallions with animal
Agures (Ag. 4) appear to bend outwardly, and the
inscriptions (Ag. 1; as well as the large inscription of the
deep plate in the British Museum) seem to turn inwardly.
Basins on a lofty stand were used as fruit-dishes ;
those which had lids and a high foot served to hold
sweet things.
Beautiful vases for sweets were used as far back as
the time of the story-teller Hariri (born in 1054 at Basra,
where he died in 1122), but we do not know how they were
made. In the eighteenth station of his popular Makamat,
he relates^- that Abu Zaid, the adventurous poet-hero of
the work, on the way with his companions A-om Syria to
Baghdad, received from a rich merchant in Sinjar an
invitation to a wedding-feast, which he accepted. A
principal portion of the banquet consisted of the sweets
which were brought on by the merchant in a glass goblet.
The goblet seemed as though it were of condensed air, or
formed of powdered sunshine, or fashioned from the light
of the Armament, or made of peelings from a white
pearl. Further on, Abu Zaid singularly calls the glass
a Cheater.
* They are also found in the decoration of the ensigned border of the
plate belonging to Baron Lionel Rothschild (Eg. 4).
t We are indebted for this piece of information to Herr F. Bayer, of
the K. K. Handels-Museum in Vienna.
collection into the possession of Herr Franz Sarre of Berlin
—both have their lids ; the one in the British Museum
(Slade Bequest, No. 335) has lost its loot ; and Captain
Myers is in possession of the lid only of a similar bowl.*
This seems to have formed part of a vessel of more modern
date (Sec. XIV ?) and is adorned with a blue-enamelled
frieze of written characters, round and slender, three inter-
esting armorial-medallions breaking the continuity of the
inscription. These medallions (Ag. 33) represent a golden
writing-tablet in a held which is enamelled of a yellowish
Aesh-colour.s The upper and lower compartments os the
medallion are red.
The lidded bowl in the British Museum, which, to
judge from the slightly undulant form of the lower part
of the body, seems to have had a similar ribbed foot to
that of Badr-ad-dln az-Zahiri—-may possibly be the oldest
example of the group. It is perhaps a work of the
Arst half of the thirteenth century. There is a fairly
sufficient richness in the embellishment, although it is very
sparingly enamelled, apart from the red outlines of the gilt
design. There is around the broad part of the vessel,
a frieze comprising eight fields edged with blue bands. In
those fields some remarkable figures are designed, of griffins
and sphinxes with ornamented bodies, in the manner of
Fie. 33.
Ag. 64 from the bottle belonging to M. Vapereau in Paris,
but apparently older in style. Whether these fantastic
winged creatures represent Al-borak, on whose back the
prophet was borne to the Seventh Heaven; or the fabulous
bird 'Anka of the Muhammadan Paradise, that animal
which had the legs of a stag, the tail of a tiger, and the
face of a woman, and which the superstitious Arabs
endowed with wings, and so much strength that it could
soar aloft with an elephant as easily as an eagle could carry
away a mouse—we know not. These fanciAil Agures
* A footed bowl (the lid missing) was exhibited not long ago in the
German Museum at Nurnberg, and has been reproduced by Essenwein
in his " Kunst und kunstgewerbliche Denkmale des Germanischen
Museums/' on plate XV, as " an Oriental vessel (1230-1260) Egyptian
work "—greatest diameter, 260 mm. It is designated by Mr. Lane Poole,
Eg. 94, as "Vase of Sultan Baibars II." In our own judgment, formed
after a thorough and careful examination of the original, this bowl does
not belong to the class of old Oriental glass-work.
*j* It was probably intended to be white, but the tint was altered by
the action of the Ere.
appear however frequently enough in Perso-Arab decora-
tions, particularly in wood-carvings and metal-work.*
The decoration of this lidded and lofty-footed bowl is
based on a division into horizontal compartments. A broad
frieze, broken by medallions, encircles the lid, and another
surrounds the broad part of the vessel. On the bowl of
Badr-ad-dln az Zahiri, corresponding friezes are found,
besides which slight bands of Aligree encircling the edge,
and in three places the foot of the vessel; while on the
lower part of the body (—which in the British Museum
lidded bowl is naked) there are three ornamental medallions
in variegated enamel. The medallions alternate with the
same number of ornamental motifs symmetrically disposed,
but without any exact boundaries, in the style of those on
the lower part of the mantle of the large goblet on
plate XXXI.
The deep plates and Aat basins are divided into
concentrical compartments, and within these compartments,
the decoration radiates, so that the medallions with animal
Agures (Ag. 4) appear to bend outwardly, and the
inscriptions (Ag. 1; as well as the large inscription of the
deep plate in the British Museum) seem to turn inwardly.
Basins on a lofty stand were used as fruit-dishes ;
those which had lids and a high foot served to hold
sweet things.
Beautiful vases for sweets were used as far back as
the time of the story-teller Hariri (born in 1054 at Basra,
where he died in 1122), but we do not know how they were
made. In the eighteenth station of his popular Makamat,
he relates^- that Abu Zaid, the adventurous poet-hero of
the work, on the way with his companions A-om Syria to
Baghdad, received from a rich merchant in Sinjar an
invitation to a wedding-feast, which he accepted. A
principal portion of the banquet consisted of the sweets
which were brought on by the merchant in a glass goblet.
The goblet seemed as though it were of condensed air, or
formed of powdered sunshine, or fashioned from the light
of the Armament, or made of peelings from a white
pearl. Further on, Abu Zaid singularly calls the glass
a Cheater.
* They are also found in the decoration of the ensigned border of the
plate belonging to Baron Lionel Rothschild (Eg. 4).
t We are indebted for this piece of information to Herr F. Bayer, of
the K. K. Handels-Museum in Vienna.