A celadon glass bottle vase, Tang dynasty 7.8 cm high. Provenance: Tony Omura, 'See an Old Friend', Hong Kong Probably imported from the Persian Empire in present-day East Mediterranean or Iran, this type of glassware were excavated along the ancient trade routes in Far East. Two similar examples decorated with circular relief patterns can be found in the Miho Museum and the Shaanxi History Museum, dated 4th to 6th century and the Sui dynasty respectively, the Shaanxi piece of a similar shape, too. Both were made with cut-glass technique, where the surrounding glass, after cooling, was cut back to leave the bosses standing in relief. The bosses, as well as the foot, on this bottle however are applied to the body when the glass was still hot, a feature also found on a bottle excavated from the Famen Temple (dated 8th to 9th century). Such technique was mastered by artisans in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Roman Empire, and later spread to the Islamic world, the circular discs being one of the most common decorations of Islamic glassware. The Shaanxi piece was excavated from a Buddhist temple and used for storing Sarira; the current lot may serve the same purpose, too.