TWO EARLY ISLAMIC GLASS FRAGMENTS
Egypt, 11th - 12th century and late 13th - 14th century

Comprising a fragment of stained, copper lustre-painted Fatimid glass, with a convex central boss and raised walls, featuring a double frieze of overlapping spirals, 11cm x 8cm at widest points; and a smaller fragment of polychrome-enamelled Mamluk glass, with a stylised Kufic calligraphic band, painted in light blue, reserved against a white scrolling ground with red highlights, 9.3cm x 4cm at widest points.

The spiral motif on our stained Fatimid glass fragment is analogous to a frieze decorating the waist of a Fatimid bowl, dating to the 11th - 12th century, in the British Museum collection (acc. no. OA1902.5-17.2), also illustrated in S. Carboni and D. Whitehouse, Glass of the Sultans, 2001, p. 220, cat. 109.