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Islamic Objects and Manuscripts - IAA 631

Instructor: M. Tarek Swelim, Ph.D.
Student: Aymen Aiblu
Purchasing an Islamic Object

The Luck of Edenhall, mid-14th century V&A Museum no. C.1 to B-1959
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The "Luck of Edenhall" is a painted glass beaker made in Syria or Egypt

in the middle of the 14th century, elegantly decorated with arabesques in blue,
green, red, and white paint with gilding. It is now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London and is 15.8 cm high and 11.1 cm wide at the brim. It had
reached Europe by the 15th century when it was provided with a decorated stiff
case in boiled leather with a lid, including the Christian IHS; this no doubt helped
it survive over the centuries.1
The beaker is now known to be an excellent and pristine example of 14th-
century luxury Islamic glass. The antiquity of the legend surrounding it has not
been determined. A number of rare objects owned by families in the North of
England were known as "lucks"; the glass was first documented and named as the
"Luck of Edenhall" in 1677 in the will of Sir Philip Musgrave.
Glass drinking vessels very rarely survive—or remain in one family—for
long enough to acquire a legendary status, so the successful passing of this vessel
through many generations of the Musgrave family of Edenhall, Cumberland is
exceptional. Legend has it that this ancient beaker embodied the continuing
prosperity of its owners. Telling the story in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1791,
Rev. William Mounsey of Bottesford wrote:
“Tradition our only guide here, says, that a party of Fairies were drinking
and making merry round a well near the Hall, called St. Cuthbert's Well;
but being interrupted by the intrusion of some curious people, they were
frightened, and made a hasty retreat, and left the cup in question: one of
the last screaming out;
"If this cup should break or fall
Farewell the Luck of Edenhall!"”
The glass remained intact in the possession of the Musgrave family. In 1926
the glass was loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in 1958 it was finally
acquired for the nation. It remains on permanent view in the Medieval &
Renaissance galleries. Eden Hall no longer exists, having been demolished in
1934.2
I like the simpleness of this Islamic antique glass painting, its idea, thoughts,
and the imaginative mind that brought up these colorful lines of decorations, and
for that, I have chosen it to purchase if I had a chance to do so.

1. "The Luck of Edenhall (Eden Hall)". Pitt.edu. 2010-07-14. Retrieved 2011-02-09.

2. "Edenhall, Cumbria". Visitcumbria.com. Archived from the original on 2010-12-21. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
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Bibliography
V&A: "The Luck of Edenhall in the Victoria and Albert Museum". Victoria and Albert
Museum. 2012-05-08. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
Jackson, Anna (ed.) (2001). V&A: A Hundred Highlights. V&A Publications. ISBN 1-
85177-365-7.
Davies, Glyn (January 2010). New Light on the Luck of Edenhall. The Burlington
Magazine., pp. 4–7 Academia.edu.
Beard, Charles R., Luck And Talismans: A Chapter of Popular Superstition, 2004
reprint, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1417976489, 9781417976485, Chapter VII gives a full if
partly outdated account of the Luck and its legend, google books.