Premodern glassware represents an extraordinary transformation by fire of humble ingredients—sand, plant ash, and minerals—into delicate, jewel-like objects of everyday use. First discovered sometime before BC 2000 in the Middle East, glass technology was developed to a high degree of sophistication in antiquity by Roman and Iranian craftsmen, whose greatly valued wares were exported to places as far flung as northern Europe and East Asia. Glassmaking in the centuries following the Muslim conquests is marked by a continuity with these earlier traditions, as is demonstrated by this bottle, whose design draws upon Sasanian prototypes (see M.76.174.236 and M.76.174.239) having wheel-cut hexagonal surface patterns. Here, however, the facets are circular, and were cut and polished after the greenish blue glass was blown.

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• Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
• Saldern, Axel von. Glass 500 B.C. to A.D. 1900: The Hans Cohn Collection. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1980.