Bottle

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 technique, evident in the characteristic pontil scar at the base, highlights the skill of anonymous Islamic glassworkers, who produced vessels prized for their clarity, thin walls, and subtle curves without reliance on molds or decoration. Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's renowned Edward C. Moore Collection (bequeathed in 1891), this bottle invites us to appreciate the fusion of utility and artistry in Islamic culture, where everyday objects embodied refinement and cultural exchange along historic trade routes.