Cosmetic Glass Bottle with Zoomorphic Base

Cosmetic glass bottles with animal figurines were a popular vessel in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic world, and have been discovered in excavations in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Egypt. Each of these animal-shaped flasks is unique, as the shape of the animal figurines carrying baskets with small containers were freely and imaginatively tooled by the glassmaker. These bottles were most probably produced in greater Syria sometime from the 1st to 2nd century AH/ 7th to 8th century CE. This free-blown animal flask is of colourless glass with a brownish tinge. It has a zoomorphic base carrying a small container which is surrounded by a cage, which is built in two tiers of applied and trailed dark-green glass. The zoomorphic base on which its four animal legs are attached supports the openwork structure, as well as the chest and head of an animal appearing in the front and back. The animals most often depicted in these vessels are camels, horses and donkeys. Such vessels were probably used as containers for perfume, balsam or khol.