Ancient Islamic Glass Bottle with Molded Design in Kufic Text about Blessings and Joy, c.11th century AD. Size 8 1/4 inches high. Green Glass bottle with three rows with top two in Arabic, and bottom has connected coiled rings, long slender neck, 7 rings around neck, 7 nobs sticking out (one missing). Text from Khalili: “This flask seems to be unique in the prominence given to the benedictory inscription, which occupied the main decorative register on the body. Th e inscription reads: barakah wa-yumn wa-surer wa salamah li-sa[hibihi] (‘Blessing and good fortune, and joy, and well-being to its owner’). Inscriptions on the shoulders are more common and a related benedictory inscription written in a similar style of Kufic on a spectacular emerald-green flask in the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, is placed below the main decorative register. The inscription is bordered above and below by a narrow band of sunken dots, which create a simple guilloche pattern. Below the lower band is a row of pointed arches. A trail of glass is wrapped round the lower park of the neck and summarily tooled with a few vertical strokes. The base is inset and its concave underside retains a pontil mark. See page 243 for inscription written out. Reference: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art #281 (exact same mold!) GA- 5.c4 Islamic Bottle with Religious Molding 1-2 Provenance: Private collection Rotterdam, sold at an action Vendu Auction house Rotterdam 2015, art dealer Inocenta Rotterdam 2016, Dick Meyer, Amsterdam (3/16/2017)

one nob missing else intact.