A GILT AND POLYCHROME-ENAMELLED CLEAR GLASS MOSQUE LAMP
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
Possibly Murano, Venice, Italy, ca. the late 1860s - 1890s

Of typical compressed globular shape, with sloping shoulders and a flattened underside, resting on a short circular foot with pontil mark, rising to a tall, wide, flared neck, with six applied curved loop handles on the body, the full exterior surface painted in cobalt blue, red, green, and white enamels and profusely gilt, decorated with a wide thuluth calligraphic band with royal honorific titles around the centre of the body outlined in red and reserved against a cobalt blue ground, repeated in negative around the rim with an over-imposed cobalt blue inscription outlined in red on a gold ground, interspersed amidst three large heraldic medallions with concentric roundels, the central field showing a now-faded, stylised, single-line epigraphic blazon, usually a prerogative reserved for Mamluk sultans only, the junction of the neck and shoulders, and base enhanced with horizontal decorative bands with alternating two-tone ovals, lobed gilt rosettes, blue arabesque medallions and vegetal trellis with almond-shaped, polychrome leaves.

26cm diam. and 33.5cm high

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 19 May 1982, lot 323.

Enamelled glass has been fascinating mankind for millennia. Digging its roots in the Ancient Egyptian civilisation, this decorative material has been widely popular and in use in Roman times as well, expanding its periphery from the Mediterranean shores as far as Central Asia. Its connection with Egypt, nevertheless, is particularly special and recurrent. Indeed, during the Mamluk period (1250 - 1517), this almost abandoned art witnessed a sudden boost and Golden Age, now celebrated in several exquisite artworks which, despite their fragility, survived until the present day. It is thus inevitable to look at the present mosque lamp and to recognise the clear link with its Mamluk precursors. The iconic shape and notable decorative vocabulary, including the heraldic blazons around the neck and the bold thuluth inscriptions, form part of the Mamluk enamelled glass legacy. However, its dating and production site place this specimen in a different category. In fact, the present example shows a strong degree of affinity with an enamelled glass mosque lamp made by Antonio Salviati, a Venetian master glassmaker active in the late 1860s - 70s, published in the exhibition catalogue Venice and the Islamic World 828 - 1797, The Metropolitan Museum, 2007, fig. 13, p. 274. Both lamps feature epigraphic blazons, a prerogative of Mamluk sultans only, and the decorative bands on the neck, shoulders and underside display the exact same colour and pattern arrangements with two-tone ovals, gilt rosettes, and blue vegetal sprays respectively.

In 1867, Antonio Salviati and his workshop initiated a proper revival of the enamelled glass technique in Venice, despite the deep crisis affecting the Venetian glass industry after the fall of the Republic in 1797. Thanks to the help of Giuseppe Devers, a ceramics decorator from Turin who had previously worked at Sèvres and collaborated with Salviati from 1867 until 1870, the Salviati & Co. Atelier managed to achieve high standards of quality in enamel work and decoration, often drawing examples from the past (Ibidem, pp. 272 - 274). In fact, the Revival Movement of the late 19th century sparked a new interest in Antiquities across all of Europe, and both Byzantine and Islamic artworks provided an ideal inspiration for these artists.

This new output of Venetian enamelled glass caught the attention of several prestigious collectors, in particular Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and ruler of Sudan (r. 1863 - 1879). It is said that in 1867, he ordered from Salviati 50 mosque lamps based on the model of 14th-century Mamluk specimen to be displayed in Cairo and possibly Alexandria as well. One could speculate that such generous commission served the purpose of replacing some of the original Mamluk mosque lamps, which had probably gone in disrepair and got damaged with the passing of time. Two years later, in 1869, with the Khedive's agreement, the French ruler Napoleon III purchased two of Salviati's Mamluk-style mosque lamps for his collection. Such remarkable commissions as well as the International Exhibitions of Paris (1867 and 1889), London (1862) and Turin (1911), ignited a true Renaissance of enamelled glass in the Venetian ateliers. As a result, throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, Venetian glassmakers distinguished themselves for the creations of high-quality Islamic glass objects, bearing a notable resemblance to the Medieval originals, as the present example testifies. Differently from other revivalist glassmakers like the Austrian Lobmeyer and the French Brocard, Venetian artisans aimed at paying an honest tribute to the original mosque lamps, embracing some of their imperfections and washed palette. Like back in the 14th and 15th centuries, the indissolvable link between Venice and the Islamic World has once more led to the creation of outstanding artworks in the modern age, celebrating centuries of mutual influence and inspiration.