Footnotes

• Provenance:
  A UK private collection
  
  While plates and dishes of similar size and with folded rims are well known in filigrana or vetro a retorti glass, this form of bowl, without a separate foot, is most unusual. A related example with a more pronounced angular base is in the Gaillard Collection and was exhibited by Sylvie King, Verres de la Renaissance, November 2013.
  
  This was possibly intended for use as a rosewater bowl or basin. Popular in the Middle East as well as in the Mediterranean, rosewater bowls were intended for visiting guests to wash their hands after travelling distances. While this particular example may have been made for a less functional purpose, it is interesting to wonder if the bellied shape was intended to hide dirt as someone washed their hands, as dirt would naturally spread to the sides. Related forms are found in Islamic Mamluk metalwork and these may have been the origin of this shape in Venetian glass. Mamluk glass spittoons of a more-pronounced bellied form are known and these were copied in Europe, such as the Ravenscroft example now at Corning, (ref.no. 2008.2.12).