Mosque lamp

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Title/s

Mosque lamp

Maker/s

Unknown probably (glassmaker)

Unknown possibly (glassmaker)

Category

glass

Name

mosque lamp

School/Style

Mamluk

Description

Clear bubbly glass with a brownish tinge, free blown, with applied lugs, enamelled in blue, red, white and black. Depressed globular body with six clear lugs for suspension on the sloping shoulder, flaring neck, and low circular foot. Decorated on the upper part of the neck in nashki script with a passage from the Qur'an, Sura XXIV, 35, the Sura of Light, broken by three circular medallions containing a red cup. Around the lower part of the neck is a band of red scrolling foliage brokenby upright plant motifs. The shoulders are decorated in larger script reserved in foliage outlined in red in a blue ground: 'By the order of the most noble authority, the Exhalted, the Lordly, the Masterful, holder of the sword, Shaykhu al-Nasiri'. The lower part of the body is decorated with three medallions containing cups alternating with three medallions containing blue foliage. The spaces between are occupied by flowers.

Production Place

Damascus (glassmaker) (place) ()

Syria (glassmaker) (country) ()

Egypt (glassmaker) (country) ()

Technique Description

clear bubbly glass, with a brownish tinge, free blown with applied lugs, enamelled in blue, red, white and black

Dimensions

height: (whole): 35.3 cm
diameter: (rim): 27.3 cm
diameter: (foot): 13.8 cm
diameter: (body including lugs): 309.3 cm

Period

mid-14th Century
Mamluk

Date

circa 1355

Provenance

given: National Art Collections Fund 1949-12 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection)

Linant Pasha; purchased from him by Rostowitz Bey, Cairo, by whom given to John M. Cook; inherited by his son, Frank H. Cook; inherited by his wife, Mrs Frank H. Cook

Given by the National Art-Collections Fund in commemoration of the centenary of the Museum's opening

Inscriptions/Marks

1. inscription
   Position: around neck
   Method: painted in enamels
   Content: inscription from the Qur'an, Sura XXIV, 35
   Description: in nashki script
   Language: Arabic
   
2. inscription
   Position: around the body
   Method: painted in enamels
   Content: arabic inscription: By the order of the most noble authority, the Exhalted, the Lordly, the Masterful, holder of the sword, Shaykhu al-Nasiri
   Description: in nashki script
   Language: Arabic
   

Documentation

1. (1950) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Annual Report for the Year ending 31 December 1949, Cambridge (Cambs.)
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated, plate 1]
2. (1950) National Art-Collections Fund Annual Report 1949, London [page: p. 22]
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated, p. 22, no. 150, ill. opposite]
3. Winter, Carl (1958) The Fitzwilliam Museum. An Illustrated Survey, Boissia, Clairvaux, Jura, France : London: Trianon Press ; Distributed by W. Collins [page: p. 103]
   [comments: Publ. p. 103, pl. 24]
4. The Fitzwilliam Museum (1977) Glass at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Cambs.): Cambridge University Press [page: pp. 62-3]
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated, p. 63, no. 133, p. 62]
5. (1982) Treasures of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Cambs.): Pevensey Press [page: pp. 56-7]
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated in colour, p. 56 and see p. 57, no. 54]
6. Cocks, Anna Somers (1988) How to buy a Stubbs on £2,600 a Year, The Fitzwilliam and the N.A.C.F., London [page: p. 255]
   Source title: Apollo (April 1988)
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated, pp. 252-58, on p. 255, fig. 4]
7. (1988) The National Art Collections Fund at the Fitzwilliam Museum, An Exhibition to celebrate The Fund's 85th Anniversary, Cambridge (Cambs.)1988)
   [comments: Publ. Illustrated, pl. 1, April 12 to June 19 1988]
8. Robinson, Duncan (1998) The Fitzwilliam Museum 1848-1998, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Collecting, Cambridge (Cambs.) [page: p. 31]
   [comments: Publ. p. 31, no. 40, illustrated]
9. (2005) Treasures of the Fitzwilliam Museum, London: Scala [page: 129]
   [comments: Publ. p. 129]
10. Bulletin de l'Institute Egyptian, [page: p. 144] 1886)
    [comments: Cf. facing, p. 144]
11. Schmoranz, G. (1899) Old Oriental Glass Vessels, London? [page: p. 73]
    [comments: Cf. p. 73]
12. Lamm, C.J. (1930) Mittelälterliche Gläser aus dem Nahen Osten, Berlin
    [comments: Cf. no. 90]
13. (1960) National Museets Arbejdsmark 1960, [page: p. 120]
    [comments: Cf. A comparable lamp, and decoration, p. 120, pl. V]
14. Curatola, Giovanni (1993) Eredita dell'Islam, Arte Islamica in Italia, Venice [page: pp. 324-5]
    [comments: Cf. An example in the Bargello, Florence in exhibition catalogue, Venice, Palazzo Ducale, 30tOctober 1993 - 30 April 1994, pp. 324-5, no. 190. Egypt or Syria, 1343-47. It bears the emblem of dawdar Tughaytimur, nominated amir by Ibn Qalawun, and who became secretary to three Mamluk sultans between 1342-3 and 1347.]
15. Christie's (2000) The Collection of the Late Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, 14th December 2000, London [page: pp. 68-9, 56] 14th December 2000)
    [comments: Cf. An Egyptian or Syrian Mamluk Mosque lamp made for Sultan Barquq 1382-99 AD, pp. 68-9. Estimate £400,000-£600,000. Cf. pp. 56-7, lot 14, a probably French second half of 19th century lamp with the cup bearer's emblem, which bears the name of the Emir Qusun, cup bearer of al-Malik al-Nasir, and is a near copy of one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.]
16. Christie's (1996) Works of Art from the Bute Collection, 3rd July 1996, London [page: p. 54] 3rd July 1996)
    [comments: Cf. A lamp dating from the reign of Sultan Hassan (al-nasir Nasir al-Din 1354-1361), see Christie's, London, 3rd July 1996, p. 54, lot 24 (Estimate £70-200,000). Smaller, 24.8 cm high]
17. Carboni, Stefano (2001) Glass of the Sultans, New Haven and London: Yale University Press [page: 228-36]
    [comments: Ref. and Cf. pp. 228-36, nos 114-117. No. 116, bears the cup emblem of Sayf al-Din Qawsun (d. 1342), cup bearer to Sultan Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalaun]

Other Notes

Accession Number

C.4-1949 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 28044; Input Date: 2001-05-01 / Last Edit: 2011-05-05)