A cut-glass spoon, Persia or Central Asia, 9th-10th century

of greenish blue glass, the back of the spoon decorated with high-relief discs and almond-shaped bosses which continue down the back of the handle and end in an elegant curled-back terminal cut as a stylised ram's head

This unique spoon is related to a series of glass vessels of the 9th-10th century with similar raised disc ornament of Persian origin, see C.J. Lamm, Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, vol.II, Berlin, 1930, Taf. 52 (2,4,9), 54 (1,5). For a glass beaker from Persia with similar discs see R. Hasson, Early Islamic Glass, Jerusalem, 1979, pl.56. Of particular interest is a glass hanging lamp in the Treasury of San Marco in Venice with an 11th-century metal mount inscribed "Saint Pantaleimon, protect thy servant Zacharias, Archbishop of Iberia [Georgia] Amen"; the lamp is carved with discs with conical centres, and cones between them, as on the back of the spoon.  A glass flask with raised discs similar to those on the spoon (ibid., Taf. 54 (1)) is close in form to a well-known type of Khurasanian metal bottle of the 10th-11th century and provides a further link with Persia.

Glass spoons with wheel-cut decoration are known from Roman times, see D.B. Harden,  Roman Glass from Karamis, Ann Arbor, 1936, p.287, fig.4 (m-o) and derive ultimately from bronze prototypes which often end in human or animal terminals (S. Carboni, Glass from Islamic Lands, London, 2001, p.104)

Only five other examples of cut-glass Islamic spoons have been published, including two in the al-Sabah Collection (ibid., pp.104-105, no.30a-b), one excavated at Fustat in a ninth-century context (G. Scanlon and R. Pinder-Wilson, "Glass Finds from Fustat: 1964-1971", J.G.S., XV, 12-30, 1973, fig.46, no.26), one found at Mersin, southern Turkey, with the name of the maker, Qasim (F. Day, "Islamic Remains", in J.Garstang, ed., Prehistoric Mersin: Yümük-Tepe in Southern Turkey. The Nielson Expedition in Cilicia, Oxford, 1953, p.261), and another excavated at Afrasiyab in a 10th-century context (K.A. Abdullaev et al., Culture and Art of Ancient Uzbekistan, Moscow, 1991, no.643).