Publication Date
About 700/about 1300
Publication Place
-
Museum of Islamic Art
Subject
Painted and gilded glass.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الارتفاع: 28 سم؛ القطر: 19 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
I. 2573
Record ID
object;ISL;de;Mus01;33;ar
Library Location
Museum of Islamic Art
Date
About 700/about 1300
Notes
This polo player's bottle is the only completely preserved example from Mamluk times and represents Mamluk glass art. It has a frieze representing horsemen jumping to the right, one of them carrying a polo club. Polo was very popular with the Mamluk rulers because it combined military training and playing. This bottle was most likely made in Syria or Egypt and was commissioned by one of the Rasulid rulers in Yemen, as evidenced by the presence of five-leafed red flowers in the shoulder frieze on a white background, which are also found on the metalwork that these rulers also commissioned. The bottle is made of light yellow, almost colorless glass. This bottle consists of a rounded body on a ring base and is made of blown glass with vertical ribs that ends at the top with a high cylindrical neck. As for the drawings with red borders, which are enamel or gilded drawings, they are preserved in a completely unclear way. The main frieze of this bottle consists of twelve players (horsemen) facing to the right, and above that there is a frieze in front of a branch in which animals run to the left (rabbits, deer, bear, and hounds). This frieze is intersected by three flowers. Three birds also decorate the shoulder frieze, and around the neck is a colorful frieze of writing on a golden ground. The inscription generally contains general praise and therefore cannot be used to date this object. The good and complete preservation of this bottle is impressive. It is also said that she was in China and came into the possession of Graf F. Von Portalis in the nineteenth century. As appears on other similar bottles, the reason for their good preservation lies in the fact that they were filled with sacred soil or the remains of memorial relics, and were preserved with the treasures of some European churches. It is believed that this type of engraved vessels were manufactured in large numbers, as evidenced by the presence of many of their broken remains in multiple groups, almost all of which were found in the hills of the ruins of ancient Cairo. It is likely that skilled artists produced these small pieces of art in short periods of time.
Sample Text
Jens Kröger “The Polo Player's Bottle” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;de;Mus01;33;ar
