Glass from Sasanian Antecedents to European Imitations

The Khalili Collection contains more than 300 objects that encapsulate the history of Islamic glass from its Byzantine and Sassanian antecedents to late 19th-and early 20th-century revivals. It contains an unparalleled group of mould-blown and pattern-moulded objects - no fewer than seven of which are of the rare inscriptional type - and this wealth of material has allowed comparisons to be made between vessels from the same moulds. Other significant groups comprise vessels with relief, linear and facet-cut decoration, as well as vessels on which decoration is pincered; applied in the form of trails and medallions; cold or lustre painted; and a group of enamelled objects spanning the entire period when this technique was in fashion. Glass with scratched decoration- a category known mostly through small fragments - is represented here by four complete vessels.