Enameled Glass bottle

This Glass bottle was originally an extraordinarily richly and densely decorated treasure. Wear and a crude restoration have unfortunately distorted the original appearance somewhat. Only traces of the gilding, originally very delicate, are evident: the space between the stars on the shoulder is filled with gilt meshwork, which extends to a banner on the widest part of the vessel. A wide decorative frieze and another banner follows towards the base. The technique of enamel painting goes back to ancient Roman times and flourished in Egypt and Syria in the 13th and 14th centuries. The very dense gold decoration in combination with the enamel flecks, applied like tiny semi-precious stones in a relief-like way, are a very rare feature of this bottle. A close parallel, an amphora in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, was donated by Duke Rudolf IV to the cathedral chapter in 1365. (Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk)