Bottle of green glass, partially mould-blown with marvered pieces of yellow glass
India; 17th–18th century
H: 20 cm
Inventory number 33/2007
This glass bottle was presumably blown in a mould that gave it the vertical wavy pattern on the body, continuing up the neck. The bottle was subsequently stretched and reworked with tongs to create the two beads on the neck and the flared lip.
The yellow drops and streaks in the green surface were created by pressing smaller pieces of yellow glass into the hot glass before the bottle was stretched. Similar decorations are known from a few other pieces of Indian glassware, including an eighteenth-century carpet weight (11/2014).
At the time of writing, no other preserved, Indian glass bottles of the same shape and colour are known, but judging from miniature paintings the type enjoyed some popularity at the Mughal court. One painting shows the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) in the company of a waiter pouring from an elongated, pear-shaped bottle in greenish shades.1
The yellow drops and streaks in the green surface were created by pressing smaller pieces of yellow glass into the hot glass before the bottle was stretched. Similar decorations are known from a few other pieces of Indian glassware, including an eighteenth-century carpet weight (11/2014).
At the time of writing, no other preserved, Indian glass bottles of the same shape and colour are known, but judging from miniature paintings the type enjoyed some popularity at the Mughal court. One painting shows the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605–27) in the company of a waiter pouring from an elongated, pear-shaped bottle in greenish shades.1
