Rosewater Sprinkler

Rosewater Sprinklers (Gülabdans) MMA 91.1.2155 and 91.1.1544

Ubiquitous in the Islamic world, these small, elegant bottles for perfume (and rosewater in particular) were produced in a variety of media from metal to ceramics to glass.[1] The two characteristically shaped examples here are made of glass and feature decorative marbling patterns. The technique of marbled glass has a long history in the eastern Mediterranean dating back to ancient times and continuing into the early and medieval Islamic periods. Under the Ottomans, however, glass production seemed to decline because of competing industrial production in Europe.[2] At the end of the eighteenth century Sultan Selim III, aiming to revive and industrialize Ottoman glass production, founded a new glass manufactory at Beykoz, outside Istanbul.[3] A variety of sophisticated polychrome glass types previously imported from Venice or England were now imitated in Istanbul as new glass was also produced.

These rosewater sprinklers (gülabdans) highlight the Ottoman preference both for colorful effects and for organic, vibrant marbled patterns. Developed primarily as a papermaking art, marbling was also employed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by ceramists in the renowned workshop at Iznik to add special effects to tiles for Ottoman monuments.[4] In the eighteenth century, such patterns became popular for small glass bottles. Each of these sprinklers employed a different technique to achieve its colorful effect. In one (no. 91.1.2155), a mixture of inhomogeneous red and brown opaque glass served as the base material, and the overall spiral marbling pattern was achieved as the body was blown and turned into its distinctive onionlike body and cylindrical neck. In the other (no. 91.1.1544), a hot gather of greenish iridescent glass was rolled in crushed red glass and then blown into the final shape, creating a distinctly patchy marbled pattern on the flattened globular body that develops into alternating lines on the elongated tapered neck. These two gülabdans reveal Moore’s affinity for studying variations in the shape of a given type of object—here, sprinkler or gülabdan—as well as his keen eye for nuances in glassmaking techniques and patterns.

Deniz Beyazit in [Higgins Harvey 2021]

Footnotes:


1. On a perfume sprinkler in glass from medieval Syria and the use of such sprinklers, see Sheila R. Canby in Canby, Sheila R., Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi, and A.C.S. Peacock. Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2016, p. 106, no. 35. On the theme more broadly, see Joachim Meyer. Sensual Delights: Incense Burners and Rosewater Sprinklers from the World of Islam. Copenhagen: David Collection, 2015.


2. Ottoman glass consumption became increasingly dependent on European imports, particularly for sophisticated colored or large-scale window glass items. Knowledge of Ottoman glass before the opening of the Beykoz glass factory is limited (see note 3). Some smaller glass objects were produced at the Tekfur Sarayi workshop in Istanbul in the first half of the eighteenth century, but Tekfur Sarayi is better known for ceramic production, which stopped in the mid-eighteenth century. It is not clear whether, which kind, and how much glass continued to be produced there in the second half of the century. See Bakirer, Omur. "Glass Finds Discovered in the Excavations at Tekfur Sarayi, Istanbul." In Two Eminent Contributors to Archaeometry in Turkey: To Honour of prof. Dr. Ay Melik Ozer and Prof. Dr. Sahinde Demirci, edited by Ali Akin Akyol and Kameray Ozdemir, pp. 107-15, Istanbul: Homer Kitabevi. 2012; Yenisehirlioglu 2013.

3. Current research suggests that many of the Late Ottoman glass objects, including those collected by Moore, were produced in the Beykoz workshop, established after Sultan Selim III’s 1791 trip to Austria. Moore’s Ottoman glass thus dates from the very late eighteenth century to the 1870s–'80s, with a terminus ante quem of 1891. For Beykoz, see Bayramoglu, Fuat. Turk cam sanati ve Beykoz isleri. Istanbul: Turkiye is Bankasi, 1974.


4. Among known glazed tiles with marbling patterns are two fragments from a late-sixteenth-century panel in the Museum’s collection (02.5.95a, b).

Edward C. Moore (American), New York (until d. 1891; bequeathed to MMA)

Beyazit, Deniz, Maryam Ekhtiar, and Sheila R. Canby. Collecting Inspiration : Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co., edited by Medill Higgins Harvey. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021. pp. 23, 190, no. 123A, ill.