One possible literary source of enamel painting on a glass vessel from the Near East

The paper attempts to seek a source of enamel painting made on medieval conical glass tumblers of Near Eastern origin. The decorative band beneath the tumbler rim depicts two men standing in tall bushes on a shore of a waterpool and birds flying over them (Fig. 1). Until recently vessels with such painting have been dated to the second half or the third quarter of the 13th century. Not long ago a fragment from Yaroslavl (Fig. 2) dating to the pre-Mongol period was included into the group of such vessels. Presumably, the depicted narrative scenes are illustrations of some literary work. We believe that it was an oriental fable about a tortoise which travelled by air carried by two birds. Absence of the tortoise on the glasses and a greater number of the birds may, probably, mean that the painters did not know what literary work was to be illustrated and, for this reason, felt free to make changes in the painting at their own discretion based on their preferences.