Aspergillum or sprinkler

This aspergillum (qumqum) for perfume or rose water consists of a ring-shaped body standing on four small feet. The long neck slightly narrowed at its base is pierced with a fine pinhole opening and finished by two small added handles. The decoration comprises white marvered and combed threads, forming irregular, festoon motifs on the neck and body, in the manner of feathering.

Metal qumqum have been known dating from antiquity and from the earliest centuries of Islam, notably at Susa[1]. They probably appeared in Egypt and Syria starting from the end of the Fatimid era and spread from the twelfth-thirteenth centuries during the Ayyubid period. Their utilisation would continue during the Mameluke era in the fourteenth century[2].

The popularity enjoyed by these objects is explained by their function. They are linked to the religious and secular use of perfume, both widespread in Islamic culture, and whose usage is laid down in the Hadith[3].

The ringed shape of the body, which requires great skill in its making, makes this object a piece of rare and precious[4] quality. It was achieved by making a cylinder which was then joined by the two ends. Ceramic pieces in the same shape are known in the ancient East[5]. The commonest shape used for aspergillums is that of a small flask with a global, slightly flattened body; much simpler to make[6].  In Ayyubid Syria and Egypt, a few examples of the global, flattened body were made in larger sizes[7].

The object is made from glass; a technology that appeared in the 3rd millennium in Mesopotamia, and developed widely in the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC with the invention of blown glass from Phoenicia. The aubergine tint of the glass is obtained thanks to the addition of manganese oxide in the heated material[8]. Glass with manganese, which had existed since Ancient Egypt and under the Roman Empire, was used from the first centuries of Islam[9]. It would become characteristic of Ayyubid objects both in daily use and those considered precious. Feet and handles were additions under heat. The thin diameters of the handles are very decorative; they are found as entirely decorative elements on pieces produced during the Fatimid era[10].

The white inlaid trails form the decoration applied to the glass before it is shaped by blowing and tooling. The motifs were obtained by combing. The surface was smoothed or marvered by rolling the object on marble or a metal plate. This thread decoration was most widespread on the aspergillums of the Ayyubid period; it would continue to be used in the Mameluke era[11]. This technical and decorative principle has existed since much more ancient times. The Egyptian tombs of the eighteenth dynasty (1550-1350BC) have given us vessels of coloured glass inlaid with polychrome threads and with combed and feathered motifs…[12] The technique lasted into the Roman period. After a phase of general decline in the art of glass-making in the Mediterranean region from the 3rd century, it re-emerged in Islamic art in the ninth-tenth centuries, when the glassware production seemed to experience a real resurgence, the fourth-ninth centuries having furnished little material, often largely undecorated, which lasted until the Mameluke period. European pieces taking their inspiration from this type of decoration were produced in the twentieth century[13]. Ceramic, gold or silver aspergillums are known in Ottoman, Safavid and Mogul art[14].

[2] Aspergillum in the name of the Yemeni Rasulid Sultan al-Ashraf Abû al-Fath ‘Umar, son of al-Malik al-     Muzaffar, Egypt, 1296, enamelled and gilded glass, London, Victoria and Albert Museum,  inv. C.133-1936.

[3] See Al-Bukhâri 1977.

[4] Other ring aspergillums are kept in different museums :  Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf, inv.P1965-77 ; Toledo, inv. 23.2362 ; Damas National Museum, inv. 7398-A/2803 ; Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, inv. 1977.164 ; British Museum in London, inv. OA 1913.5-22.100 ; collection al-Sabah, Kuwait, inv. LNS 38 KG.

[5] Flask with ring body, 1800 - 1600 BC, Ras Shamra-Ougarit  (Syria), terracotta, Paris, Louvre, AO 20381.

[6] Aspergillum, Syria, 12-13th century, blown glass, decorated with white inlaid threads, New York, The Corning Museum of Glass, inv. 50.1.26.

[7] Aspergillum, Syria,12-13th century, blown glass, applied decoration, Damascus, National Museum, inv. A/609.

[8] The glass is made of silica, from a flux allowing the fusion temperature to be lowered and a stabiliser making it insoluble.

[9]    Small flask with an added decoration, Iran, Susa, 8th-9th century, deep purple blown glass with decoration added, Paris, Louvre, inv. MAO S.88.

[10] Cup, Egypt, 9th-10th century, glass, Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, inv. I.2134.

[11] Aspergillum, Syria( ?), 13th century, glass decorated with inlaid threads, Amman, Museum of Archeology, Jordan, inv. J.1941.

[12] Vase decorated with festoons, glass, Egypt, New Empire (1550-1353), Paris, Louvre, inv. AF 2032. Photo in base atlas

[13] André Metthey, bottle, Asnières (France), c. 1911, earthenware, Paris, Museum of  Decorative Arts, inv. 18103.

[14] Aspergillums for rose water, Turkey, last quarter of 16th century, gold, silver, various metals, porcelain and glass, turquoise decoration (firuzekari), openwork, Istanbul, Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi, inv.91.