A Sasanian Green Cut-Glass Bowl with Hexagonal Facets, ca. 5th - 6th century CE

This compact, translucent green bowl is decorated with a field of wheel-cut hexagonal facets arranged in a honeycomb pattern, a hallmark of Sasanian luxury glass. The cutting, executed after forming, creates a lively play of light across the surface and emphasizes the clarity and color of the glass. The interior is plain, allowing the exterior faceting to read crisply in profile and in hand. The green hue, typical of Sasanian glass, likely derives from iron present in the silica source, sometimes enhanced intentionally to achieve a richer tone.

Background:  Glassmaking flourished under the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), whose artisans advanced and popularized faceted and relief-cut decoration on thick-walled vessels. While the Romans had developed both blown and cut-glass traditions, Sasanian workshops made cut glass a signature courtly aesthetic, favoring geometric motifs such as roundels, lozenges, and hexagons. These vessels were valued at home and widely traded abroad; Sasanian glass has been found from Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau to the Caucasus, the Levant, Central Asia, and as far east as China and Japan, attesting to its prestige across Silk Road networks. The honeycomb of contiguous hexagons on this bowl represents one of the most recognizable Sasanian cut-glass schemes. The pattern’s regularity and depth require precise wheel work and controlled wall thickness, suggesting production in a well-equipped workshop serving elite clientele. Such bowls likely functioned in courtly dining and ritualized drinking, where their weight, cool touch, and scintillating surfaces enhanced the sensory experience.

The Sasanian taste for facet cutting persisted into the early Islamic period, influencing glass produced in Mesopotamia and Iran for centuries thereafter.

Comparanda and further reading: - David Whitehouse, Ancient Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass, Vol. 2 (2001), entries on Sasanian facet-cut vessels. - Prudence O. Harper et al., The Royal Hunter: Art of the Sasanian Empire (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978), discussions of luxury craft traditions. - Jens Kröger, Nishapur: Glass of the Early Islamic Period (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995), for the continuation of Sasanian cutting techniques in early Islamic glass. 

Medium: Glass, wheel-cut decoration

Dimensions: Diameter: 4 1/4 in (10.8 cm), Height: 3 1/2 in (8.9 cm)

Condition: Professionally repaired from a few pieces with minor surface wear consistent with age, otherwise complete and in good condition overall.

Provenance: Henry Anavian Family Collection NYC, acquired in the 1980s and then by descent.

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