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Artwork Details
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Title:Bottle
Date:ca. 1870–80
Geography:Attributed to France, Paris
Medium:Glass; free blown, enameled, and gilded
Dimensions:H. 19 11/16 in. (50 cm) Diam. 9 7/16 in. (24 cm)
Classification:Glass
Credit Line:Gift of Anthony Blumka, in honor of Justin Frederick Nasatir, 1998
Object Number:1998.396
Bottle
This bottle has a biconical body and a plain rim, with a rounded lip. The top of the neck tapers to a thick horizontal trail, triangular in cross section; below the trail, it is cylindrical and wider at the bottom than at the top. The foot, made from a second gather, is a tall hollow cone, truncated at the top, with a tubular edge made by folding out and down. There is a large circular pontil mark.
Both the neck and the wall are decorated, the former with eleven continuous horizontal bands, four above the trail and seven below it. The first band from the top shows, on a plain background, a vegetal scroll with red outlines and gilded stems and leaves; the second has, on a blue background, a different vegetal scroll, decorated in the same manner as the first The pattern on the first band reappears on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh bands, while that on the second is repeated on the fourth and sixth bands. The eighth band is broader and contains a phoenix, flying to the right and having a white body, red wings, and a blue and white tail, set against a background of yellow and green scrolls. The tenth band, which is also broad, has a blue naskhz inscription repeated three times, with white, yellow, and green scrolls in the background.
The wall is decorated with a broad horizontal frieze bordered above and below by narrow bands that are identical to the second band on the neck. The frieze contains four roundels alternating with four rectangular panels. Each roundel contains arabesques on a blue background surrounded by a border that is identical to the first band on the neck. Each panel has a blue inscription against a background of white, yellow, green, and red scrolls. The areas between the roundels and the upper border of the frieze contain arabesques, while those between the roundels and the lower border contain pairs of confronted peacocks separated by rosettes, with arabesques in the backgrounds.
A gilded and enameled botde of the same form is signed "Brocard a Paris 1869" (Hilschenz-Mlynek and Ricke 1985, no. 8).
David Whitehouse in [Carboni and Whitehouse 2001]
References:
Helga Hilschenz-Mlynek and Helmut Ricke. Glas: Historismus, Jugendstil, Art Deco. Vol. 1, Frankreich. Materialien zur Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts, 32. Munich, 1985.
Inscription: On central band and at base of neck in Arabic: transliteration: al-Alim; translation: the Learned (Trans. S. Carboni, 11/98)
Private Collection, Paris (in 1939); Anthony Blumka (American), New York (from ca. 1988–98; gifted to MMA)
Corning, NY. Corning Museum of Glass. "Glass of the Sultans," May 24–September 3, 2001, no. 153.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Glass of the Sultans," October 2, 2001–January 13, 2002, no. 153.
Athens, Greece. Benaki Museum. "Glass of the Sultans," February 20–May 15, 2002, no. 153.
Lexington, KY. International Museum of the Horse. "Gift from the Desert," June 1, 2010–October 15, 2010.
Fuchs, Ludwig F. "Irakenische Glassflasche." Pantheon (1939). pp. 228–29, ill. (b/w).
Carboni, Stefano, David Whitehouse, Robert H. Brill, and William Gudenrath. Glass of the Sultans. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. no. 153, p. 306, ill. (color).
Wypyski, Mark. Metropolitan Museum Studies in Art, Science, and Technology. vol. 1. New York, 2010. pp. 116–17, 122–23, ill. fig. 14.
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