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Collections

Beaker12th-13th century

Not on view
Ancient conical glass beaker with heavily weathered parchment-yellow surface, decorated with three narrow applied aqua-teal glass trails near the rim
Carved stone beaker of conical form, cream and tan alabaster with natural veining, decorated with two inlaid turquoise horizontal bands near the upper body and a turquoise-inlaid rim.
Title
Beaker
Place Made
Eastern Mediterranean
Date Made
12th-13th century
Medium
Glass, free-blown and tooled, with applied decoration
Dimensions
Height: 5 7/16 in. (13.81 cm); Diameter: 3 15/16 in. (10 cm)
Credit Line
The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost
Accession Number
M.2002.1.501
Classification
Glass
Collecting Area
Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes

Cylindrical beakers with elegantly flaring rims are especially typical of Syrian glass production during the Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods. This distinctive shape was decorated in a variety of techniques—such as enameling, gilding, and marvering—or, as in this example, with multiple applied trailed threads of opaque turquoise glass. Such Syrian beakers must have been widely exported throughout the Islamic lands and beyond, to judge by the many regional renditions of this shape, including those created by Venetian glassmakers.

Selected Bibliography
  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.