A rare trailed glass oil flask (unguentarium) in the form of a camel, probably Syria, 7th-9th century

the free-blown convex cylindrical body of the flask has a narrow constricted neck with everted mouth and is supported on the back of a trailed glass quadruped, either a horse, mule or camel, encircled by a basket-form saddle made up of openwork trails

Published in 1400 Years of Islamic Art, 1981, no.147

A similar zoomorphic flask is in the Khalili Collection, as described by Sidney Goldstein in the catalogue Glass, From Sasanian antecedents to European imitations. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. XV, London-Oxford, 2005, p.40:

This type of flask was "probably made specifically for balsam. Aromatic resinous substances dissolved in oil were exported in the Roman period and, as chrism, during the Middle Ages from the Near East, from Cairo (where a famous balsam tree grew at Matariyya, near Heliopolis), and, further afield, from Arabia. Hence the medieval term 'balsam of Mecca', held to have marked therapeutic properties, as well as being esteemed as a scent. It came north with the incense trade brought by camel caravans through Arabia Petraea to the ports of the Syrian coast. The use of camel supports for balsamaria is picturesquely appropriate for their contents".

Related examples are recorded by Lamm in a number of public museum collections (see C.J.Lamm, Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, Berlin, 1929-30, Taf.20.24, 26-30, Taf.21.2, 3, 8, 9, Taf.23.4). In addition there are examples in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburg (inv. no. 244), and in the Constable-Maxwell Collection sold in these rooms, 4-5 June 1979, lots 351-2.