R - Metropolitan Museum of Art

15. The decoration on this bottle was
executed with the aid of a rotating metal
wheel and an abrasive in an engraving
technique that, like many already discussed,
grew out of the late antique tradition.
The resulting lines are broader than
those scratched into the surface with a
pointed metal or diamond tool, as on
no. 16.
16. When glassmakers in the Early period
employed the incising (as opposed to
engraving) technique represented by this
goblet, they preferred metal colored
aubergine purple and various shades of
blue to the colorless variety utilized by
the Romans.The technique itself caused
the designs (which are usually arranged
in bands) on these later, colored vessels
to read as white. A few complete vessels
and numerous fragmentary examples so
decorated were found in Egypt, Syria,
Iraq, and Iran.
A luster-painted vessel, identical in
shape to the cup of this goblet and with
remains on its base of what may have
been a stem, was excavated at Fustat
in the undisturbed pit; this find provides
a date in the third quarter of the eighth
century for the Museum's vessel as well
as for an identically shaped goblet with
luster-painte decoration that was
excavated in Raqqa, Syria. Because
of the rarity of this particular shape, perhaps
this dating should be considered
for the incised group as a whole.
15
18