A FRENCH ENAMELLED GLASS MAMLUK STYLE FLASK, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH BROCARD, PARIS, CIRCA 1880
flattened moon form, the amber tinted glass body enamelled in turquoise, white and red and gilded with arabesque strapwork roundels to each side within beaded borders, gilt scroll work between and to the flared neck, scroll handles applied to the shoulder, signed Brocard Paris in iron red script above the foot
16.5cm high
Judy Rudoe (Decorative Arts 1850-1950. A catalogue of the British Museum collection, second edition, 1994, no. 27) states: 'P.-J. Brocard started his career as a restorer and collector of antiques; fascinated by the Mamluk mosque lamps in the Musee de Cluny, Paris, he began to collect them himself and thus had models close at hand to study. Mosque lamps were luxury objects for hanging in mosques and mausolea and were the most spectacular achievements of enamelled glass from Mamluk Egypt and Syria from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Brocard was among the first to revive Islamic enamelling techniques: vitreous enamels were applied to the surface of the vessel and then fixed by firing so that the enamels fused to the surface. The gilding was applied beneath the enamels in the form of gold leaf or powdered dust and similarly fused to the surface in the firing.'