Bottle

Glass production in Iran was limited to the period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries as imported glass vessels from Europe came increasingly into vogue. Such European glasswares are depicted in a number of large-scale oil paintings of the period. Nonetheless, glass water-pipe bases, bottles, and decanters continued to be produced natively and in a variety of colors. Most commonly, glass vessels were mold blown and included decorative devices such as the parallel spiraling ribs that animate the body and neck of this bottle. Other examples, highly distinctive of the period, are bottles with curving, asymmetrical "swans' necks" and a mouth similar in shape to a floral bud. Appreciated for their elegant shapes and clarity, such objects were used for the storing and serving of wine. Sometimes they would be filled with colored water and arranged within the niches of homes and public buildings as decoration.