A SASANIAN CUT GLASS BEAKER, PERSIA, CIRCA 5TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A SASANIAN CUT GLASS BEAKER, PERSIA, CIRCA 5TH-7TH CENTURY A.D. Of tapering cylindrical form, rising from a slightly rounded base to a plain everted rim, the exterior wheel-cut with staggered rows of contiguous oval facets arranged in a honeycomb pattern that covers the entire body. The facets are cut in quincunx, each row offset against the next, terminating at the base in a single register of upright oval bosses. The metal is of pale straw tone with areas of light iridescence and scattered black inclusions and pitting consistent with long burial. The rim is left plain and the interior undecorated, allowing the play of light through the cut wall to define the ornament. The honeycomb or "hobnail" facet scheme is among the most distinctive achievements of Sasanian luxury glass. Cut on the wheel from a thick-walled blank, the pattern relies on the interaction of light with the curved facets to produce shifting reflections when the vessel is handled or filled. The technique demands considerable control, since each facet must meet its neighbours cleanly without breaching the wall of the vessel; the regularity of the cutting here, and the tight tessellation of the ovals, indicates a workshop of some accomplishment. Glass of this type was produced in the workshops of the Sasanian Empire between roughly the 5th and 7th centuries A.D. and travelled widely along the trade routes that linked Ctesiphon with the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, and the Far East. Sasanian cut glass beakers and bowls have been recovered from sites as distant as Korea and Japan, where they entered elite burials as prestige imports, and comparable pieces are recorded in early medieval European church treasuries, where they were re-mounted as reliquaries. The material itself carried significance beyond its physical qualities: in a period when fine glass was the equal of precious stone in courtly esteem, the cut beaker functioned as a vessel of rank, its transparency and refractive play understood as an intrinsic form of luxury. The Sasanian court is known to have prized such wares alongside rock crystal, and the two traditions inform one another closely, with the wheel-cut facet scheme translating directly between the media. This beaker exemplifies the mature Sasanian honeycomb type, in which the entire vessel body is treated as a continuous field of cut facets rather than a decorated zone within a plain ground. It stands within the tradition that shaped the wider medieval understanding of luxury glass across Eurasia, and whose influence is felt in the cut glass of the Islamic period that followed. Dimensions: Height: 8.7cm

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