The elaborate gilded and enameled glass commissioned for the sultan tended to overshadow more humble products. Undecorated vessels of colorless, transparent glass are, nonetheless, objects of refinement. This pitcher’s graceful spout, sloping angular body, and its rainbowlike iridescence (produced by acids in the soil acting on the glass surface when later buried) combine to create an object of quiet elegance.
Artist Islamic, Syrian
Title
  • Spouted Vessel
Date 1100s
Medium Glass
Dimensions Overall: 5 1/4 × 3 7/16 × 4 inches (13.3 × 8.7 × 10.2 cm)
Credit Line Founders Society Purchase, Antiquaries Fund and the Cleo and Lester Gruber Fund
Accession Number 1987.78
Department Islamic Art
On View Islamic N120, Level 1 (see map)
(Mansour Gallery, London, England);
1988-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
"Notes on recent acquisitions," Bulletin of the DIA 64, no. 1, 1988, p. 57 (ill.)

Bulletin of the DIA 64, no. 2/3, 1988, p. 21, fig. 15, (ill).

Henshaw, Julia P., ed. A Visitors Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 125 (ill.)