AN OCTAGONAL GREEN SASANIAN CUT GLASS BOTTLE, PERSIA, CIRCA 6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

AN OCTAGONAL GREEN SASANIAN CUT GLASS BOTTLE, PERSIA, CIRCA 6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D. Of cylindrical form with octagonal section, rising from a short flaring foot through straight facetted sides to a rounded shoulder, the neck constricted at its base by two horizontal ribs and terminating in an everted, flattened rim. The body has been ground and polished into eight vertical facets of even width, the vertical junctions between them softened by wear and by the surface weathering that has left the glass with a pale, translucent bloom. The metal is a clear yellow-green, the tone deepening at the thicker points of the wall and lightening across the polished planes. Iridescent weathering has developed across much of the surface, producing turquoise and silvery patches most visible at the foot. The bottle is worked from a thick-walled blown blank, the exterior facets cut and wheel-polished after annealing rather than moulded, a technique characteristic of Sasanian luxury glassworking. The double ring at the base of the neck is likewise cut, not applied. The result is an object whose ornament is architectural rather than applied, deriving its effect from the interplay of ground planes, the refraction of light through the coloured metal, and the disciplined geometry of the section. Sasanian cut glass of this type belongs to a tradition of prestige vessels produced in Persia between roughly the 4th and 7th centuries A.D., a body of work admired and exported widely in its own time. Examples reached as far as Kofun-period Japan and Tang China, where they were preserved in imperial and temple treasuries, and westward into the Mediterranean and northern European elite contexts. The technique of facet-cutting fine, thick-walled blanks was among the highest-status glassworking practices of late antiquity, and Sasanian workshops carried it to a level of refinement matched only by contemporary Byzantine ateliers. Green-toned metal of the kind seen here, achieved through natural iron content in the batch rather than deliberate colourant, is characteristic of the eastern Iranian and Mesopotamian production centres associated with the late Sasanian court. The facetted bottle form, with its constricted double-ringed neck and short foot, is a shape well established in Sasanian glass and metalwork alike, the two media sharing a common vocabulary of profiles. Such bottles are generally understood to have held precious liquids, whether rose water, aromatic oils, or wine, and their survival in intact condition is comparatively unusual given the fragility of the thin-walled necks. This bottle exemplifies the restrained geometry of late Sasanian cut glass, in which vessel form and surface ornament are unified through the single operation of the wheel, and colour is drawn from the metal itself rather than added to it. Its intact profile and clearly articulated facets place it within the mainstream of the tradition rather than its margins, and give a clear reading of a technique whose surviving examples are more often fragmentary than whole. Dimensions: Height: 9.8cm

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