WARD, Rachel

WARD, Rachel

Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East

British Museum Press, London, 1998, p. 30-34

Al-Sabah Collection (KuweitKuwait) ; Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) ; British Museum (LondresLondon) ; C.L. David Collection (CopenhagueCopenhagen) ; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) ; Museum of Islamic Art (Le CaireCairo)

sans contexte archéologique without archaeological context

[1201, 1400]

bassin basin bol bowl bouteille bottle chandelier candlestick lampe lamp vase vase

doré gilded émaillé enamelled

• Glass imitations of metalwork during the Mamluk Period:
– large metal basins (fig. 9.2 and 9.3),
– candlesticks (fig. 20.5),
– round-bottomed bowls (fig. 11.1 and 11.2),
– handled vases (fig. 10.12).

• Parallels between enamelled glass and inlaid brass:
– heavy gilding as a visual parallel to their metallic models,
– decorative schema and motifs.

• Chronology of enamelled glass - comparative analysis with metalwork.

• Examination of enammelled glass objects and metalwork made for the European export market.

• Examining the patrons of enamelled glass - inscriptions and/or blazons of Ayyubid and Mamluk sultans and high-ranking amirs on glass objects.

• Examples of inscripions including a name:
– bottle inscribed for Sultan al-Nāṣir Ṣālaḥ al-Dīn (fig. 9.1);
– mosque lamp for Amir Salār (fig. 9.5);
– vase made for Sultan al-Manṣūr Ṣālaḥ al-Dīn Muḥammad (fig. 10.12);
– bottle with the name of Amir Shams al-Dīn Altanbughā (fig. 6.6).

• Examples of inscriptions on secular glass vessels, without a name:
– ʿizz li-mawlānā al-sulṭān al-malik al-ʿāmil al-ʿādil al-mujāhid (”glory to our lord the sultan, the king, the wise, the just, the warrior”);
– ʿizz li-mawlānā al-sulṭān al-malik al-ʿāmil, al-ʿāmil, al-ʿāmil (”glory to our lord the sultan, the king, the wise, the wise, the wise”) (fig. 9.2).

inscription inscription