Footed Goblet

This goblet in dark blue-green glass is a rare speciman made in Iran in the first centruries after the Arab conquest, although following a long-established Sasanian technique. It has thick, slightly oblique sides, a solid stem also with oblique sides, and a decorative ring just above the solid foot. The facet-cut decoration, consisting of five rows of shallow ovals scooped away at close intervals in a honeycomb pattern, was realized after the object had cooled. In facet-cut vessels from the Sasnian period (224–651), colorless glass was employed, and one shape, the shallow bowl, predominated. Beginning in the Islamic period, Iranian glassmakers allowed themselves to be more inventive, and a variety of colored glass, both opaque and transparent, was used, along with a wider variety of shapes, including bottles, jugs, deeper bowls, and vases. This goblet highlights both the continuity of techniques from pre-Islamic to Islamic Iran and the innovations that took place in the Islamic period.