Bottle
Unknown Artist
18th–19th century
Medium
Glass; blown, tooled on the pontil
Dimensions
H. 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm) Max. Diam 3 3/8 in. (8.5 cm)
Classification
Glass
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
Accession Number
91.1.1591
Art Historical Context
This delicate glass bottle, dating to the 18th–19th century, hails from the Islamic world and showcases the timeless elegance of traditional glassmaking. Standing 8⅞ inches tall with a slender 3⅜-inch diameter, its simple yet graceful form was designed for practical beauty—likely to hold perfumes, oils, or spices, items cherished in daily life and trade across the region. Crafted through free-blowing, the bottle's molten glass was inflated on a blowpipe and then tooled on the pontil, an iron rod that allowed artisans to shape and finish it by hand while still glowing hot. This labor-intensive...