Extremely Rare & Important Fatimid Carved Rock Crystal perfume Bottle 13th C. AD. H: 2.75 inches, 7cmThere are around 180 rock crystal carvings that were made in the Islamic World between the eighteenth and eleventh centuries. Of these a few, mostly personal ornaments, have been attributed to Persia where there was a well established tradition of carving in crystal. The greatest number, however, were made in Mesopotamia and Egypt. And it was in Egypt too, where there was an ancient tradition of hard stone carving, the craft was fully realised with the mastery of crystal carving in relief about the second half of the tenth century. Until then the predominant style of carving was the so-called bevelled technique in which the decorative elements were separated one from the other by slanting cuts so that compositions were linear with no background. A bottle of this type of decoration was excavated at Wasit (Erdmann, Kurt, Neue Islamische Bergkristalle, in: Ars Orientalis III, 1959, pp. 200-205, abteilung 4).The first attempts at relief carving were amde in the small ampulla or scent bottles such as the present lot. Vegetal decoration in the bevelled style was replaced by the relief technique which allowed for greater precision of outline against a smooth and polished ground. (Courtesy of Christies)

Good Condition