Bottle, colorless glass, with relief-cut decoration in a green overlay (modern neck)

The greenish decoration was achieved by cutting away the outer layer of glass except where the pattern appears in soft, beveled relief. The pattern, which is characteristic of early Abbasid art and was used on materials of many types, was first developed for stucco reliefs that decorated buildings in the capital of Samarra. The bottle’s stylized birds and entwined, abstract vegetal ornaments are other motifs that frequently appear in the art of the period.

The bottle was supposedly found in Nishapur, but might have been made in Iraq, where fragments of this type of glass have been excavated.