Images(3)

pitcher

Object NamePitcher

Made FromGlass

Dateprobably 1100-1399

TechniqueBody blown in dip mold, handle pincered

SizeOverall H: 16.2 cm, Diam (max): 11.1 cm

Accession Number66.1.5

Curatorial Area(s)

Exhibitions

Glass from the Ancient World: So Diverse a Unity

Liquid Refreshment: 2000 Years of Drinks and Drinking Glasses

Glass of the Sultans

Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture

Interpretive Notes

Web Text

This pitcher was decorated by inflating molten glass in a mold. Since glassmaking molds were introduced by the Romans in the early first century A.D., they have been used continuously in Egypt, Western Asia, and elsewhere. No examples of full-size metal molds from the medieval Islamic period are known to exist, but the Corning collection contains one of two surviving metal dip molds. It has an overall pattern of lozenges. The body of the pitcher was blown in a similar dip mold, withdrawn, and inflated further. The neck was tooled, and the handle was applied and pinched. This type of colored mold-blown glass is often attributed to the Gurgan region of northeastern Iran.

Place Made

Iran

Physical DescriptionPitcher. Transparent greenish brown; few obvious bubbles. Body blown in dip mold; handle pincered. Pitcher: cylindrical. Rim has six lobes, with rounded lip; neck cylindrical, with vertical sides, folded near bottom to create raised “collar” (H. 1.3 cm) with three thicknesses of glass; shoulder slopes and has rounded edge; wall straight and tapering slightly, rounded at bottom; base plain, slightly concave; pontil mark large and irregular (max. W. 1.8 cm). Handle with strap-shaped cross section dropped onto bottom of shoulder, drawn up and in, and attached to outside of rim, with semicircular thumb-rest near upper attachment. Handle and thumb-rest pincered with tool that formed two vertical groups of three pyramidal bosses on handle and two bosses on thumb-rest. Bottom of neck (below "collar"), shoulder, wall, and underside of base have overall honeycomb pattern, with individual compartments placed in horizontal rows and arranged in quincunx. At bottom of neck: intermittent row of impressed dots above continuous row of 30 small, rather irregular hexagons. On shoulder: two rows of 30 hexagons. On edge of shoulder and wall: four rows of 30 hexagons above one row of 17 compartments that were stretched along their vertical axis and extend under base. On base, radiating from center: origin of compartment in bottom row on wall, with kite-shaped rather than hexagonal motifs.
Provenance

Provenance Remark

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