22nd Apr, 2020 15:00

Islamic & Indian Art

 
  Lot 77
 

A BLOWN CLEAR GLASS PERFUME SPRINKLER (QUMQUM)
Possibly Ayyubid Syria, 12th - 13th century

A BLOWN CLEAR GLASS PERFUME SPRINKLER (QUMQUM)
Possibly Ayyubid Syria, 12th - 13th century

Of flattened and compressed ring-like shape, resting on a bell-shaped splayed foot, rising to a tall tapering neck decorated with applied sinuous trails, the centre of the body hollow, 15.5cm high.

For a similar example, please see the Ayyubid sprinkler at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1977.164). The unusual ring-like shape must have had a useful function despite its fragility; one could hook a thumb or finger into the central hole and shake the bottle vigorously without losing grip. It seems that the shape was introduced in Syria around the 12th century (Hugh Tait, et all, Five Thousand Years of Glass, London, 1991, pp. 128–29, fig. 161).

Sold for £1,125

Includes Buyer's Premium


 

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