Glass Inkwell with Cut Decoration

This greenish colored blown glass inkwell with applied lip and handles is part of the Museum of Art’s (NYC) Islamic Art collection. The tube descending into this vessel is just wide enough to receive a reed pen and keep the ink from splashing about when the inkwell was suspended from the scribe’s wrist or belt by chains attached to its four loop handles. Other inkwells of this type – glass as well as metal or ceramic – have been found in Iran and were probably in use until the twelfth or thirteenth century.