A MUST-SEE SHOW, “GLASS THROUGH THE AGES“, running from April 12, 2018 through October 7, 2018 in Dordrecht

“GLASS THROUGH THE AGES”

Presented by

The Dordts Patrician House – Museum at the Meuse river

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Located at banks of the old Meuse river and at the harbor area of the historical intercity of Dordrecht you will find the Dorts Patrician House active link, a beautiful monumental house which gives you a great impression of life at the end of the 18th century. Have a look at the fine details, paintings and drawings in this authentic 18th century house. The new show ‘GLASS THROUGH THE AGES“, will run from April 12, 2018 through October 7, 2018.  Now, as a visitor to the Patrician House, you can see this beautiful exhibition. The glassware that is shown comes from the collections of Hans van Rossum, Nico Bijnsdorp, Aad v.d. Born, Joop van der Groen, Martin, Annelies  and Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen starts with very early examples from the 6th century BC. These are followed by over 120 Roman glass objects, dated 1st – 5th century AD.  Also on display are silver coins showing the Roman emperors being paired with glass objects in use at their respective reigns.  A nice example is the coin depicting emperor Otto, who was bald as a coot, wearing a wig.  A unique display.In another display cabinet drinking glasses are shown from the 1st century AD.to the year 1923, including a Merovingian cup.

For visitors there will be a very special offer to buy the book: Roman Glass borrowed from Private Collections with many high-class illustrations and the complete story of the production and used techniques by the Roman glass-workers. Visitors of the museum don’t pay € 19,95 but only € 7,50.

Below are examples of what you can see at the exhibition

(Click below to enlarge photos)

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For additional information about the collections of these five contributors to the show click on their names and you will be taken to their page on this site.

Annelies

Hans van Rossum

Elisabeth & Theo Zandbergen

Joop van der Groen

Nico F. Bijnsdorp

GLASS FROM KARANIS AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART EGYPTIAN DEPARTMENT

The majority of the Met’s initial holdings of Egyptian art came from private collections, items uncovered during the museum’s own archeological excavations, carried out between 1906 and 1941, constitute almost half of the current collection. More than 26,000 separate pieces of Egyptian art from the Paleolithic era through the Ptolemaic era constitute the Met’s Egyptian collection, and almost all of them are on display in the museum’s massive wing of 40 Egyptian galleries.^[28] Among the most valuable pieces in the Met’s Egyptian collection are 13 wooden models (of the total 24 models found together, 12 models and 1 offering bearer figure is at the Met, while the remaining 10 models and 1 offering bearer figure are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, discovered in a tomb in the Southern Asasif in western Thebes in 1920. These models depict, in unparalleled detail, a cross-section of Egyptian life in the early Middle Kingdom: boats, gardens, and scenes of daily life are represented in miniature.  Taken from an article Wiklpedia (active link).

Most of the collections of Egyptian glass shown comes from archeological excavations from the ancient Egyptian/Roman city of Karanis in the Fayum region. Date: 3rd to 4th century

 

BARREL SHAPED ROMAN (FRONTINUS) BOTTLE

BARREL SHAPED ROMAN ONE HANDLE BOTTLE

of Nico F. Bijnsdorp

 

Date: 2nd – 3rd century AD. Northwest Empire, Gaul, Normandy.

Dimensions:  H: 17.8 cm. Dmax: 8.6 cm. Drim: 4.2 cm. Dbase: 8.3 cm. Weight: 200 gr.

Classification: Isings 1957: Form 89. Morin-Jean 1913: Form 132. Sennequier 1993: Form HN.15.1. Goethert-Polaschek 1977: Form 121.

Condition: Intact. Some weathering and iridescence.

Technique: Body blown in mold with two vertical sections, each of them including a part of the base section, with a mold-seam in the form of a horse-shoe on the bottom. Mouth and neck free blown. Handle applied.

Description: Transparent bluish green glass. Cylindrical body divided in three horizontal bands of roughly equal height. Top and bottom bands have six continuous horizontal ribs each, the central band is plain and slightly convex. Near horizontal shoulder with rounded edge. Cylindrical neck slightly tapering upwards to horizontal rim. Rim folded out, up and in to form a narrow flange with rounded edge. Infolded part of rim descends into the neck. Flat base with pontil mark and mold-seam in the form of a horse-shoe. Broad handle with two faint side-ribs drawn up from edge of shoulder, bent slightly downwards and attached with a fold to neck and underside of rim. Vertical mold-seams (one adjacent to handle) from lower neck, down the body to underside of bottom.

Remarks: 

(1) This bottle was unearthed in 1875 by Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819-1899), a French archaeologist and collector, who carried out regular excavations in Northwest France. Mr. Bellon marked many of the unearthed objects with find-place and –year and other information. The underside of this bottle carries a sticker with his handwritten text “Amiens 1875”.

(2) According to Stern the horse-shoe formed pattern on the underside of the bottom is characteristic for barrel-shaped bottles made in Normandy (Stern 2001, No. 76). Examination by Gaitzsch and Fullmann-Scholz (Bonner Jahrbücher 2000) of 28 published barrel-shaped bottles with the trademark ECVA on the base shows, that all of them have the horse-shoe mold-seam. Since these bottles were produced in workshops around Cologne (Hambacher Forest), it is reasonable to conclude, that this mold-type was not (only) characteristic for the production in Normandy but (also) for Rhenish products.

Provenance:

Sheikh Saud Bin Mohamed Ali Althani Collection, Doha, Qatar.

Louis-Gabriel Bellon Collection, Saint-Nicolas, France (1819-1899).

Published:

Jack-Philippe Ruellan Enchères 4 April 2009, No. 194., Corinne Helin, August 2016, Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819-1899) et sa collection d’antiques.

References:

Whitehouse 2001, Corning Museum, No. 589.

Heinemeyer 1966, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf/Hentrich, Nos. 53-54.

Simon-Hernand 2000, Musees de Poitiers, No. 68.

Arveiller-Dulong 1985, Musée Archéologique de Srasbourg, Nos.170-171.

Sennequier 1985, Musée des Antiquités de Rouen, No. 275.

Dilly & Maheo 1997, Musee de Picardie, Nos. 42-45, 48-51, 54-61.

Metropolitan Museum New York, accession number 81.10.73 (also from Amiens).

AMPHORA IN PROTECTIVE BASKET

AMPHORA IN PROTECTIVE BASKET of Nico F. Bijnsdorp

AMPHORA IN PROTECTIVE BASKET

4th – 5th century AD. Egypt, possibly Coptic.
H = 16.0 cm. D max = 6.4cm. D rim = 5. cm. D base = 3.3 cm.

Condition: Amphora in perfect condition. Basket slightly damaged in two places.

Technique: Amphora free blown. Handles, thread, spout and foot applied. Basket in wickerwork, enforced by leather.

Description: Transparent olive-green glass. Basket pale and dark brown. The conical body of the amphora tapering to the bottom. Applied coil-foot with pontil mark. Sharp edge to shoulder, that is gently sloping to tubular neck with funnel mouth with infolded lip. One continuous trail, starting with one horizontal ring around the lower neck, then drawn up diagonally along the neck and ending in a second horizontal ring around the upper neck. Two opposed handles dropped onto the shoulder, arching to the neck and attached to the lower ring, where one handle ends but the other handle is further drawn up to end at the upper ring. A pointed, hollow spout is tooled on the shoulder.

Remarks: No unambiguous clarification could yet be given for the function of the spout and thus for the amphora itself. It has been suggested, that the amphora can be Coptic, since a similar object is exhibited in the Coptic Antiquities Room in The Louvre Museum in France. The clumsy way of placing and forming of the handles and the foot suggest, that this vessel was blown by a not very experienced glassblower.

Published: Slitine 2005, Histoire du Verre, L’Antiquité, p. 139.

Reference: No parallels could be found so far.

EGYPTIAN GLASS BOWL

39R EGYPTIAN BOWL FROM Date: Fourth Century D: 11 cm. H: 9 cm.

 

Remarks: This bowl from the Roman period was made in Egypt.  This link is to another Egyptian glass bowl from this area. Also see two Museum collections of glass from Karanis, The Brooklyn Museum and Kelsey Museum.

ISLAMIC BOWL OR LAMP

R38 Islamic bowl or Lamp Diameter:10 cm Date: Eleventh Century A.D.

 

Remarks:This pattern-molded bowl is made of clear green glass with an inward folded rim. Bowls of this type, color and pattern can be found in many different sizes. It is possible that such glass vessels were used as lamps.

Cf. Shining Vessels, Ancient Glass From Greek, Roman and Islamic Times, Fortuna Fine Arts Ltd., New York, 1991 # 184, Islamic Glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Marilyn Jenkins, 1987 # 38

MEDIEVAL GLASS AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both the Main Building at fifth Ave. and in the museum’s branch in northern Manhattan, The Cloisters museum and gardens,(active link) the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The medieval glass below is found in gallery 307 main building.

Krautstrunk beaker Germany or The Netherlands 1480-1510

Glass beaker without decoration, German Lower Rhine valley, 1400’s

Glass beaker with applied decoration, German Lower Rhine valley, early 16th century

Gass beaker with applied decoration, found in burial mounds near Novorossisk 1100-1500

Colorless glass beaker with applied decoration

Colorless glass beaker with applied decoration, Germany or Switzerland, Late 13th- early 14th C

Colorless glass beaker with applied decoration, Germany or Switzerland, Late 13th- early 14th century

Nuppen Beaker 13th-14th Century

Maigelein beaker lower Rhine valley late 15th century

 

VENETIAN GLASS PLATE OR PLATTER

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Venetian Plate or Platter of David Giles

Remarks: Venetian plate or platter with gilded decoration. The most interesting feature of this piece is that the decoration or design on the roundel is of Islamic form and was obviously made in Venice for the Islamic market. I hadn’t appreciated this when I bought it but one day an Islamic expert, Carlo Suriano, saw it and spotted this immediately. I also sent images to the Islamic expert Stefano Carboni who confirmed the same opinion.  Dated: early 1500  Diameter: 36cm  See close up of roundel below.

 

VENETIAN FOOTED GLASS BOWL

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Venetian Footed Bowl of David Giles

 

Remarks: This footed bowl with gilded and enameled decoration was made in Venice in the early 1500. Diameter is 28 cm. It is a beautiful, classic and important Venetian glass bowl.

 

ROMAN GLASS BOTTLE

Roman BOTTLEof Hans van Rossum

End 1st – 2nd century AD, Eastern Mediterranean, found in Jerusalem

Size↑9.5 cm | ø 9.5 cm (body) |Weight 120 g

Technique: Free blown, handle applied

Classification:  Vessberg Type Pl. V no. 8

Description: Green glass, globular body; cylindrical neck, slightly sunken into the body; rim folded outward, downward, upward and inward forming a collar. Three-ribbed strap handle applied to the shoulder, drawn up  and  attached  to the edge of the rim, in a fold and at right angles. Flat base with pontil rest. The small size is rare.

Condition: In a perfect condition with areas of iridescence

Provenance: Sa’di Barakat & Sons, David Street, Old City, Jerusalem. Legally Authorised Dealers, Authorisation No. 195

Reference: Fine Antiquities, Christies auction 3 July 1996 lot no. 293, Vetri antichi del Museo Civico Archeologico di Padova, G. Zampieri nos. 244, 247-249