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Blown Glass from Islamic Lands

Glassblowing enabled craftsmen to create vessels quickly and in a wide range of shapes, making glassware affordable and available.

Related

Cited Works of Art or Images (3)

• 
• 
• 

Timelines (1)

• Iraq (Mesopotamia), 500–1000 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (5)

• Cut and Engraved Glass from Islamic Lands
• Glass from Islamic Lands
• Glass with Mold Blown Decoration from Islamic Lands
• Mosaic Glass from Islamic Lands
• Stained, or Luster–Painted, Glass from Islamic Lands

Other Thematic Essays (4)

• Enameled and Gilded Glass from Islamic Lands
• Hot–Worked Glass from Islamic Lands
• List of Rulers of the Islamic World
• Roman Mold–Blown Glass

Maps (1)

• World, 500–1000 a.d.

Index Terms (3)

Geography/Place

• Islamic World

Material and Technique

• Glass from West Asia

Subject Matter/Theme

• Islam

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The invention of glassblowing in the first century B.C. in the Syro-Palestinian region created a remarkable change in the use and availability of glass objects. Previously, from the third millennium B.C., glass objects had been made using other techniques, such as casting in a mold or forming glass around a removable core. These methods were slow and labor-intensive; consequently, glass was made in relatively small quantities and was not widely available. Glassblowing—in which molten glass is gathered on the end of a blowpipe and a vessel is formed by inflation and manipulation with tools—enabled craftsmen to create vessels quickly and in a wide range of shapes, making glassware affordable and available.

The surface of most utilitarian objects was not decorated; as glass objects were principally designed for everyday use, the majority of ancient glass preserved today, in complete or fragmentary form, is plain. This type of glass is often regarded as "study" material by collectors, who favor more artistically accomplished objects. Undecorated objects, however, represent a continuity of traditions through their shapes and forms or because their practical functions deserve closer examination. When a plain glass vessel is placed in the proper context and systematically analyzed, its shape, color, and technical details can be as revealing as those of any elaborately decorated object and may provide links otherwise difficult to understand.

Stefano Carboni Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Qamar Adamjee Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Carboni, Stefano, and Qamar Adamjee. "Blown Glass from Islamic Lands". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/blow/hd_blow.htm (October 2002) Further Reading Carboni, Stefano. "Undecorated Glass." In Glass from Islamic Lands: The al-Sabah Collection, pp. 139–61. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Carboni, Stefano, and David Whitehouse. Glass of the Sultans. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions) Glass of the Sultans New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Jenkins, Marilyn. "Islamic Glass: A Brief History." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 44, no. 2 (Autumn, 1986). JSTOR | PDF | Supplemental PDFs "Director's Note" PDF "Introduction" PDF Lukens, Marie G. "Medieval Islamic Glass." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 23, no. 6 (February, 1965). JSTOR | PDF