Sphero-Conical Vessel
Title
Sphero-Conical Vessel
Description
A Fatimid sphero-conical vessel with a dark brown slip. The neck is broken, showing a sandy coloured fabric around the shoulder. The main body of the vessel is an ovoid, tapering to a rounded point at the base. Immediately below the undecorated shoulder is a repeating pattern consisting of several sets of three moulded lines, spaced around the vessel, set of a field of small impressed lozenges. The pointed base is broken.
This kind of vessel was long considered to be a kind of hand grenade used with 'Greek fire', but the identification is now questioned. Many types are known from across the Islamic world, from the 9th to 15th centuries. An unprovenanced example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated to the 11th - 12th centuries has a similar decoration, but with sets of only two moulded lines (83.3.151). Two examples at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are also close parallels. One is from Fustat, acquired in 1919, and dated to the 10th - 11th centuries (C.882-1919) it is more complete and has the same fabric as the present example, although the decoration is slightly different. Another is decorated in almost exactly the same scheme, but is glazed in a blue-green and said to be Syrian, dating to the 13th - 14th centuries (C.365-1921).
The vessel is from Ali Bey Bahgat's early operations at Fustat (Old Cairo). It was acquired from the Museum of Arab Art in Cairo, where Bahgat was curator, by Comte Corporal Gontran Louis Henri Marie Philippe de Tournouër in 1915 or 1916. De Tournouer acquired six other early Islamic antiquities from Bahgat and all are said to come from a house excavated at Fustat at a depth of 50 feet. These excavations, started in 1912, were little more than recovery operations until Baghat secured funding to excavate more formally in 1918. The precise archaeological context for the discovery of the vessel is therefore unknown and the sale of duplicate artefacts from the Museum collections was a common practice at the time. De Tournouer donated his collection to the Queensland Museum in 1917 after being invalided home from the First World War.
This kind of vessel was long considered to be a kind of hand grenade used with 'Greek fire', but the identification is now questioned. Many types are known from across the Islamic world, from the 9th to 15th centuries. An unprovenanced example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated to the 11th - 12th centuries has a similar decoration, but with sets of only two moulded lines (83.3.151). Two examples at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are also close parallels. One is from Fustat, acquired in 1919, and dated to the 10th - 11th centuries (C.882-1919) it is more complete and has the same fabric as the present example, although the decoration is slightly different. Another is decorated in almost exactly the same scheme, but is glazed in a blue-green and said to be Syrian, dating to the 13th - 14th centuries (C.365-1921).
The vessel is from Ali Bey Bahgat's early operations at Fustat (Old Cairo). It was acquired from the Museum of Arab Art in Cairo, where Bahgat was curator, by Comte Corporal Gontran Louis Henri Marie Philippe de Tournouër in 1915 or 1916. De Tournouer acquired six other early Islamic antiquities from Bahgat and all are said to come from a house excavated at Fustat at a depth of 50 feet. These excavations, started in 1912, were little more than recovery operations until Baghat secured funding to excavate more formally in 1918. The precise archaeological context for the discovery of the vessel is therefore unknown and the sale of duplicate artefacts from the Museum collections was a common practice at the time. De Tournouer donated his collection to the Queensland Museum in 1917 after being invalided home from the First World War.
Creator
Date
AD 900 - AD 1100
Format
Height: 87 mm
Width: 66 mm
Depth: 66 mm
Type
Identifier
C.008.003
QM E921
Coverage
License
© Queensland Museum, Peter Waddington.
Medium
Accrual Method
Provenance
Recovered from a House at Fustat, Cairo, Egypt, c. 1912-1915.
Part of the Museum of Arab Art Collection, Cairo, Egypt, until c. 1915-1916.
Transferred by Ali Bey Baghat, Curator, Museum of Arab Art, Cairo, Egypt, to Comte Cpl. Gontran de Tournouer, c. 1915-1916.
Donated by Comte Cpl. Gontran de Tournouer, Brisbane, to the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 1922.
Part of the Museum of Arab Art Collection, Cairo, Egypt, until c. 1915-1916.
Transferred by Ali Bey Baghat, Curator, Museum of Arab Art, Cairo, Egypt, to Comte Cpl. Gontran de Tournouer, c. 1915-1916.
Donated by Comte Cpl. Gontran de Tournouer, Brisbane, to the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, 1922.
Rights Holder
Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Bibliographic Citation
Reid, D. M. (2019). Contesting antiquity in Egypt : archaeologies, museums & the struggle for identities from World War I to Nasser. American University in Cairo Press
Wodzinska, A. (2010). A Manual of Egyptian Pottery Volume 4: Ptolemaic through Modern Period. Ancient Egypt Research Associates. Medieval Types 142-3.
Sphero-Conical Vessel. (900-1100). [Sphero-conical vessel, earthenware, of tapering ovoid shape]. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. C.882-1919=http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O345771/sphero-conical-vessel-unknown/
Sphero-Conical Vessel. (13th century-14th century). [Vessel of earthenware. With incised decoration under a turquoise-blue glaze. ]. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. C.365-1921=http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O85393/sphero-conical-vessel-unknown/
Spheroconical Vessel. (11th-12th century). [Earthenware; stamped, incised, unglazed]. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 83.3.151=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/443103
Stanley, T., Pinder-Wilson, R.H.,Savage-Smith, E., & Maddison, F.R. (1997). Science, tools & magic, Volume II. Oxford University Press.
Queensland Museum Donor Schedule #17/159 (1917).
Queensland Museum Outward Correspondence #00138 (1917).
Queensland Museum Inwards Correspondence #00509 (1917)
Ettinghausen, R. (1965). The Uses of Sphero-Conical Vessels in the Muslim East. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 24(3), 218–229. http://www.jstor.org/stable/543124
Sharvit, J., Tzaferis, V., Israeli, S., Basson, U., Berman, A., Bijovsky, G., Dekkel, A., Ginzburg, A., Khamis, E., Sharon, M., & Wilson, J. F. (2008). The Sphero-Conical Vessels. In Paneas II: Small Finds and Other Studies (Vol. 38, pp. 101–112). Israel Antiquities Authority. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1fzhd6d.7
Relation
P.008
Contributor
Mr James Donaldson
Files
Collection
Citation
Fatimid (Islamic), “Sphero-Conical Vessel,” First World War Antiquities, accessed May 2, 2024, https://ww1antiquities.omeka.net/items/show/85.
Comments