Creator(s): Imperial Glass Manufactory (Manufacturer)

On view in: Passageway to Dining Room

About this object

Caster is in dark blue glass. Neck is made up of three gilded cushion knops with faceting between. The shoulder and body are cut into fourteen facets. Each facet on the shoulder is outlined in gilt and decorated with stylized leaves and berries growing upward from the vertical stem subdividing each facet. The pattern is repeated so that three clusters of leaves grow from each stem. Covering eight of the facets on the front of the body is a transfer print in black and white. The scene is an Orientalist depiction of entertainments in a rich Eastern household. In the view, a black female in a turban and earrings enters from the left carrying a tray with a glass (?) on it. A seated, mustachioed Ottoman or Persian man in a jeweled turban holds the stem of a hookah in his right hand as he keeps time with the kerchief held in his left. He wears a fur-trimmed garment over a long caftan and billowing pants. A hookah pipe smokes on the floor near his feet. A woman is seated in the mid-ground, playing a three-stringed instrument resembling a lute. She wears a feathered turban with a veil in back and two long braids. A second woman in a similar but more richly decorated costume (Empire waisted dress over billowing pants and a jeweled and feathered turban) dances while gesturing with her embroidered or printed shawl. This scene takes place in an open pavilion looking out on a garden with a fountain decorated with masks and dense bushes. Mosarabic columns are visible to the right. The entire scene is framed within a transfer printed decorative border. The remainder of the body is decorated with a rose, small buds and another flower in tooled silver. Surrounding these are a profusion of gilded leaves, some tooled. The flowers "grow" horizontally about the body rather than vertically. The stopper is crowned by a cut ball, the flattened top being gilded.

Made from:

Glass

Made in:

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Date made:

1840

Size:

17.1 cm (6 3/4 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

23.203.1-2

Class:

GLASS

Signature marks:

Credit line:

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973