Mosque Lamp
1382 - 1400 (made)
| Place of origin |
Lamp of colourless glass with decoration in enamels and traces of gilding. A high, flaring neck rises from the container that forms the main body of the lamp. Above, this container has the approximate shape of a truncated cone, rounded inwards at the top to meet the neck. Its base slopes down to the high foot, blown separately and attached, and now broken. An inscription is written in three sections around the neck, interrupted by three blazons, in blue enamel outlined in red; a further inscription is written in a small hand within the blazons. A third inscription appears around the main body of the vessel, reserved against a blue ground, and a third across the foot.The container is equipped with six suspension rings.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Painted enamels and gilding on glass |
| Brief description | Mosque lamp, painted enamels and gold on colourless glass, Egypt, Mamluk period, 1382-1400 |
| Physical description | Lamp of colourless glass with decoration in enamels and traces of gilding. A high, flaring neck rises from the container that forms the main body of the lamp. Above, this container has the approximate shape of a truncated cone, rounded inwards at the top to meet the neck. Its base slopes down to the high foot, blown separately and attached, and now broken. An inscription is written in three sections around the neck, interrupted by three blazons, in blue enamel outlined in red; a further inscription is written in a small hand within the blazons. A third inscription appears around the main body of the vessel, reserved against a blue ground, and a third across the foot.The container is equipped with six suspension rings. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label | |
| Object history | 59 glass lamps made for Barquq survive: 25 in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo; 22 in the mosque of Imam Husayn in Cairo; 12 dispersed in museum collections outside Egypt. (Information published by Alaa El-Din Mahmoud in 2016 on the basis of a master's thesis by Mayisa Mahmud Dawud (Cairo University, 1971).) Formerly part of the William Joseph Myers collection; purchased by the V&A in 1900. Purchased from the Meyers Collection in 1900. |
| Association | |
| Bibliographic reference | B. D. Boehm and M. Holcomb, Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016): Cat. no. 135d. |
| Other number | 6156 - Glass gallery number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 326-1900 |
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| Record created | December 13, 1997 |
| Record URL |
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