Palmer Cup

The Palmer Cup is a 1200–1215 CE goblet from northern Syria or Jazira, and an example of early Islamic glass.^[1] It is sometimes described as "Ayyubid", since it corresponds to the time when the Ayyubids disputed control of areas of Northern Mesopotamia with the Zengids and Artuqids, but it belongs artistically to the Northern Mesopotamia region, somewhere between northern Syria and the Jazira.^[2]^[1] It is now in the British Museum, as part of the Waddesdon Bequest (Room 2A (Case 6b).^[3].

The goblet is made of clear glass, enamelled and gilt, mounted on a foot of silver gilt embossed with fleurs-de-lis. Near the edge, an inscription appears in gold on a blue ground: the line can be traced to the poet Kushajim (died around 961), and reads:^[3]

"Repent! While the cup is in the hand of the beardless youth, and the sound of the second and third [strings of the lute] is loud!"

Below the inscription, a prince is seated between two attendants holding swords; beyond are three other attendants, including one holding a polo club. The figures are modelled in a thick white enamel, thinly gilt and having details in red and blue. The goblet has a flat foot-rim with a turn up inside. It is held in the mount by leaves; the stem is embossed with pairs of birds sitting on branches; ribbed crystal knop; the base is embossed with fleurs-de-lis in lozenge diaper. The goblet has a height of 10.6 in (270 mm).^[4]

The original object was a glass beaker, transformed into a goblet with an elongated stem in France.^[3] The glass is Islamic work, perhaps made at Mosul, Damascus, or in Egypt, in the early thirteenth century. The decorated glass beaker itself can be securely attributed to the Jazira area of northern Iraq and northern Syria, probably to Raqqa or Aleppo, where major glass workshops operated, and can be most likely dated to the period between 1200 and 1225.^[1]

The mount is a silver-gilt chalice in filigree with a rock-crystal bead in the middle of the stem, and is most likely made in Paris, France, in the late 1250s or early 1260s.^[3]^[5] This cup was long in the possession of the Palmer family, of Ladbroke in Warwickshire.^[4]

The ruler and attendants are similar to those found in the manuscript Kitab al-Dariyaq from the Mosul or North Jazira area, and wear the typical sharbush type of headgear.^[6] Their robes, headgear, attitudes are also similar to metalwork objects datable to the early 13th century with a provenance from Mosul or the Northern Jazira area.^[7]

The cup in the British Museum
Seated ruler
Palmer Cup, right attendants
Palmer Cup, left attendants

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Contadini, Anna (2017). Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum). British Museum Research Publications. p. 125. On stylistic grounds, taking account of both decoration and inscription, it can be securely attributed to the Jazira area of northern Iraq and northern Syria, probably to Raqqa or Aleppo, both well-known centres of glass production, and likewise to a date in the early 13th century, most likely between AH 597/AD 1200 and AH 622/AD 1225
^ Contadini, Anna (2010). Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manuscripts. BRILL. p. 11. ISBN 978-90-04-18630-9. A case in point is the Ayyubid enamelled beaker known as the Palmer Cup
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "The Palmer Cup". The British Museum.
^ ^a ^b Read 1902, pp. 25–26.
^ Contadini, Anna (2017). Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum). British Museum Research Publications. p. 125. The mount (Fig. 180) that supports it, a silver-gilt chalice in filigree with a rock-crystal bead in the middle of the stem, is French and, most probably, of Parisian manufacture, being datable to the late 1250s or early 1260s.
^ Contadini, Anna (1998). Poetry on Enamelled Glass: The Palmer Cup in the British Museum.' In: Ward, R, (ed.), Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East. British Museum Press. pp. 58–59.
^ Contadini, Anna (2017). Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum). British Museum Research Publications. p. 130. The iconography of its figures is very similar to that on the Palmer Cup, in the design of their robes, in the headgear (sharbūsh) and in the way that walking figures are rendered, with one leg straight and the other slightly bent, with a slim foot slightly raised from the ground. Although the candlestick does not have a date, it is securely datable to the early 13th century, as it clearly belongs to a group of metalwork that has now been established as of that period and coming from the Mosul or North Jaziran area. These elements also confirm the early 13th-century date of the Palmer Cup and further support the region of provenance.

Sources

Read, Charles Hercules (1902). The Waddesdon Bequest. Catalogue of the Works of Art Bequeathed to the British Museum by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, M.P., 1898 (PDF). London: British Museum. This article incorporates text by Read available under the CC0 license.

[AC2017-1] Contadini, Anna (2017). Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum). British Museum Research Publications. p. 125. On stylistic grounds, taking account of both decoration and inscription, it can be securely attributed to the Jazira area of northern Iraq and northern Syria, probably to Raqqa or Aleppo, both well-known centres of glass production, and likewise to a date in the early 13th century, most likely between AH 597/AD 1200 and AH 622/AD 1225

[2] Contadini, Anna (2010). Arab Painting: Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manuscripts. BRILL. p. 11. ISBN 978-90-04-18630-9. A case in point is the Ayyubid enamelled beaker known as the Palmer Cup

[BM-3] "The Palmer Cup". The British Museum.

[FOOTNOTERead190225–26-4] Read 1902, pp. 25–26.

[5] Contadini, Anna (2017). Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum). British Museum Research Publications. p. 125. The mount (Fig. 180) that supports it, a silver-gilt chalice in filigree with a rock-crystal bead in the middle of the stem, is French and, most probably, of Parisian manufacture, being datable to the late 1250s or early 1260s.

[6] Contadini, Anna (1998). Poetry on Enamelled Glass: The Palmer Cup in the British Museum.' In: Ward, R, (ed.), Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East. British Museum Press. pp. 58–59.

[7] Contadini, Anna (2017). Text and Image on Middle Eastern Objects: The Palmer Cup in Context (in A Rothschild Renaissance: A New Look at the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum). British Museum Research Publications. p. 130. The iconography of its figures is very similar to that on the Palmer Cup, in the design of their robes, in the headgear (sharbūsh) and in the way that walking figures are rendered, with one leg straight and the other slightly bent, with a slim foot slightly raised from the ground. Although the candlestick does not have a date, it is securely datable to the early 13th century, as it clearly belongs to a group of metalwork that has now been established as of that period and coming from the Mosul or North Jaziran area. These elements also confirm the early 13th-century date of the Palmer Cup and further support the region of provenance.

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