Title: Cosmetic Set
Date: 9th or 10th century AD
Location: Egypt or Mesopotamia
Materials: colourless glass with a greenish-yellow tinge, cast or blown in an open mould, tooled and wheel cut with angular facets
Dimensions: 5.7 x 8cm (flask); 1.6 x 6.2 x 6.2cm (tray)
Accession Number: GLS 171
Other Notes:
Of the numerous facet-cut cosmetic flasks known from the eastern Mediterranean in the early Islamic Middle Ages and to a lesser extent in Iran, this set is indisputably the finest. It consists of a flask on an attached boat-shaped base and a square tray which may have been used as a palette for grinding kohl. The boat shape may allude to the import of precious cosmetics, oils and pastes by sea from distant lands.
Bibliography:
S.M. Goldstein et al, Glass. From Sasanian Antecedents to European Imitations, The Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XV, London 2005, cat.190, pp.162–3.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.51, p.59.
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