THE mesmeric beauty of Islamic glass is revealed in this catalogue, a work of scholarship by Dr Stefano Carboni, associate curator at the department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and is based on the al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait.
The catalogue includes detailed descriptions of some 500 lustrous objects, accompanied by many new photographs and special commissioned line drawings. In the preface by the eponymous Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a glass collector of renown, he mentions that his very first Islamic object was a large glass bottle, an “intact representative of spectacular Mamluk enamelled glass from 14th-century Egypt or Syria” (page 366).
Drawing on a huge range of sources to produce this comprehensive history of glassmaking, the catalogue is comprehensive and includes detailed information, general information, catalogue numbers, provenance and literature and related works, and there are 24 objects chosen because they are of special interest or have a problematic attribution.
There is a huge assortment of glass forms and decorative techniques, including the enamelled and gilded glass of 13th and 14th century Egypt and Syria, still unsurpassed in its magnificence.
Shining gems of the East
Glass from Islamic Lands by Stefano Carboni, published by Thames & Hudson in association with The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait National Museum. ISBN 0500976066. £40 pb
