Grand coffret couvert en verre taillé

Possibly Southern Italian, 13th-14th century CE Large Cut-Glass Box with Lid Green-glass lidded box of rectangular shape with rounded corners. Cut-glass box and lid showing pseudo-inscriptions on the outer surface. Hinges also made of glass. Few chips on lid and the lower part of the box. Surface heavily weathered and corroded showing iridescence and silvery grey covering, disguising the original vivid green colour of both box and lid. Length: 24 cm Width: 11 cm Height with lid: 9 cm Lot essay by Dr S. Carboni : "This intriguing and rare object could be identified as a pen-box according to the existence of similar lidded boxes produced in the Islamic world ranging from the 13th to the 19th century. These rectangular pen-boxes with prominent rounded corners are mostly made of metal, some of them showing a sophisticated calligraphic and decorative program in the inlay technique; they were produced in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran in the 13th and 14th centuries. Later boxes of similar shape were made in blue-and-white ceramic in China, probably for export to the Islamic world, as well as in Qajar Iran in lacquered papier-mache in the 18th-19th centuries. All these comparative objects are true pen-boxes, with internal compartments that state their function to contain a calligrapher’s writing tools and an inkwell. The present glass box does not show any internal divisions therefore its original function may have been entirely different. Its overall profile and the proportions between its length, width and height make it also look stockier than the pen-boxes described above, thus suggesting that it may have been just a container for precious small objects or jewellery. Very few lidded glass boxes of Islamic origin are known in the relevant literature. Three of these provide good points of reference: one in green glass in the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Tokyo, Japan (i) ; the second in transparent pale yellow or grey glass in the Treasury of the Duomo of Capua near Naples, Italy (ii) ; and a third in clear glass in the Museum fur Islamische Kunst in Berlin (iii) . All three are attributed to the Early and Middle Islamic period 9th-11th century CE, however with diverse origins (Iran, Iraq and Egypt respectively). These three examples are different from the present object because box and lid are of equal dimensions, making them capsule- rather than lidded boxes; their two equal halves are tied by means of prominent metal fasteners, and they are either plain or decorated in the cold-cut technique with simple circular patterns. The present box seems to be the only extant one displaying a hot-worked moulded decoration, in this case calligraphic or, better, pseudo-calligraphic. In his scientific report that confirms the proposed age and origin of this object, Julian Henderson also suggests that the box itself may be composed of two equal halves along the shorter side, due to his observation of what seems to be a seam running in the middle. However, this is unlikely because the calligraphic sequence should be identical if the two halves were produced in the same mould, which is not the case after proper observation. The presence of a thickening of the glass in the middle may be due to a depression in the metal mould itself. The inscription around the box and on the lid is illegible in Arabic at first sight. Its careful drawing reveals that it consists of the repetition of two short sections of pseudo-Arabic calligraphy (1 and 2 in the drawing). The original Arabic wording that might have inspired It is unclear. The sequence around the box is 1-2-1-2-1-2, and both 1 and 2 are also present one on each end of the lid, separated by a decorative polylobed cartouche in the middle. The repetition of each pattern four times on this lidded box may also suggest that the decoration was applied by stamping the hot glass in sections rather than shaping the box and the lid with their decoration in single moulds. The pseudo-inscriptions suggest that the place of production of this lidded box was not located in Arabic-speaking areas. Several earlier examples of Islamic glass with legible moulded Arabic inscriptions are known and there would be no reason for this object to be an exception. However, its shape and calligraphic decoration are clearly inspired by examples of Islamic metal pen-boxes from the 13th and 14th centuries therefore its origin should be sought in the Islamicized neighbouring areas of the Mediterranean. An intriguing thought is the possibility that it may have been made in Venice, the leading Italian glass centre at the time, with strong cultural and commercial links with the Arab world; however, this seems unlikely given the general understanding of the city’s glass production at the time. A relatively small glass centre in southern Italy or Andalusia seems to better fit the picture. The above-mentioned presence of a comparable glass box in Capua as well as of an ivory pen-box most likely made in Amalfi south of Naples in the late 11th- early 12th century CE (iv) , but especially the cultural environment of this area of southern Italy before and during the Norman period, may suggest that this extraordinary glass lidded box belong to this milieu. Further research, particularly on the style of the pseudo-calligraphic pattern, may confirm, or possibly challenge, this tentative attribution in the future. - (i) It seems to be unpublished except for a postcard; attributed to Iran, 9th-10th century CE. Dimensions: L. 11.7 cm; W. 4.9 cm; H. 4.9 cm. (ii) Treasury of Capua’s Cathedral, containing relics of San Biagio; attributed to Iraq or Egypt, 9th-10th century CE. No dimensions given. See Francesco Gabrieli and Umberto Scerrato, Gli arabi in Italia. Cultura, contatti, tradizioni, Milan, 1979, p. 478 and fig. 450. (iii) Museum fur Islamische Kunst, Berlin, Inv. I. 2199; attributed to Fatimid Egypt, 11th century CE. Dimensions: L. 15 cm; W. 6.4 cm; H. 5.5 cm. See Carl Johan Lamm, Mittelalterliche Glaser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, Berlin, 1930, pl. 61.23, p. 167; also https://id.smb.museum/object/1521061 . The box was acquired in Cairo. (iv) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917; inv. 17.190.236. A Latin inscription states that it belonged, or perhaps was commissioned, by Taurus filius Mansonis (Taurus, the son of Mansonis). See https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/446989 also for bibliography and exhibition history.