VON SALDERN, Axel

WARD, Rachel

Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East

British Museum Press, London, 1998, p. 1-3

The Corning Museum of Glass (Corning) ; Kunstmuseum (Düsseldorf) ; Oppenländer Collection (Waiblingen) ; Treasury of San Marco (VeniseVenice)

fouilles excavations sans contexte archéologique without archaeological context

[401, 1200]

bol bowl bouteille bottle carreau tile coupe cup gobelet beaker lampe lamp tesselle tessera vitre window glass

gold sandwich glass" "gold sandwich glass" abrasion abrasion doré gilded gravé engraved incisé incised lustré stained, lustre-painted soufflé dans un moule mould-blown émaillé enamelled

• Byzantine glass:
– Made within the Byzantine Empire between the death of Theodosius in 395 to soon after the sack of Constantinople in 1204.
– Questions with regard to missing archaeological evidence in Constantinople glassmaking tradition.
– Vigorous trade within Byzantium and contacts with various foreign empires - Sasanian, Muslim, Latin and later the seafaring city states of Venice and Genoa - led to the import of ideas and techniques and the export of luxury wares.

• Examples of decorated byzantine glass:
– mould-blown vessels decorated with Christian or Jewish symbols, bought by pilgrims to Jerusalem (fig. 1.1.; c. 578-636);
– so-called “mystic bottles” of black glass with diagonal ribs (fig. 1.2.; 5th or 6th century);
– wall-tiles with triangles forming a cross within a square, protected by a layer of clear glass - ”gold sandwich glass” (fig. 1.3.; 12th century);
– enamelled bowl in the San Marco treasury (fig. col. A; 10th-11th century);
– gilded and occasionally enamelled bottles of the type found at Corinth and Paphos (fig. 2.1. - 2.5.; late 12th - early 13th century).

Byzance Byzantium			production consommation
Chypre Cyprus		Paphos	consommation
Grèce Greece		Corinthe Corinth	consommation
Syrie Syria		Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān	consommation