Glassware & Ceramic Museum

The Glassware & Ceramic Museum monument is a historical house relevant to the Qajar Period registered in the National Heritage List (1998). The two-story Museum was built in an octagonal brick mansion in a garden with more than 7,000 m 2 under the command of Ahmad Ghavam at the early Pahlavi Era, and was used as Egypt and Afghanistan Embassy. The mansion was sold to the Farah Pahlavi’s Office and has been transformed to the museum in 1975. The building is ornamented by wood-carving doorframes, stairs, and brick working of the facade in Seljuq’s architecture style. The plasterworks of the museum belong to two periods: The Ghavam period and the western style during the embassy of Egypt, and the mirror works at the second floor dating back to the Qajar Period.

In general, the five halls of the museum are divided into two parts, Pre-Islamic and Post-Islamic artworks. The firstfloor dates back to the Pre-Islamic period and has two main halls. Potteries consist of clay relevant to the first millennium as well as the ones donated to the museum by European in the 18 th and 19 th centuries are kept in the corridor of the first floor. The most important discovered antiquities and potteries including colored pottery figures, glass ornamentations of the 4 th and 5 th centuries, and potteries related to the first millennium B.C. are shown in the first floor.

The Crystal Hall

The most important part of the crystal hall is a huge cube containing discovered glasses in Iran and includes objects related to the first millennium B.C., Achaemenid, Sassanid, and early Islamic period. Actually, attempts have been made to show the development process of glass and crystal industry during various periods. Most important antiquities are as follows: Sassanian glass molding on bowls and grails, glass jugs dating back to the first millennium B.C., and hung lamps related to the 5 th millennium B.C.

Mina Hall

The main hall presents glassworks from the first and second millennium B.C. in two variants, matte and shiny In addition, potteries like painted clay vase and geometric jugs are kept in the hall related to the 4 th millennium B.C. to the last century before Christ. Also, the oldest glasses discovered in the Tchoqa Zanbil called glass cylinders (which make beautiful colors under the sunlight due to coverage of different colors) have been presented dating back to the second millennium B.C., and Elamite middle era. The second floor has 3 separate halls for the presentation of glassworks and potteries relevant to the Islamic and Pre-Islamic periods.

Zarin Hall (Seashell Hall)

The hall has a shape like a half-opened seashell and includes glassworks and clays dating back to Pre-history era. The oldest handmade pottery is related to the Parthian period, the first millennium and also various potteries are available from the 3 rd and 4 th centuries in Nishapour. Some exciting objects in the hall are a glass dated back to the 5 th century B.C., and a rainbow-colored suction cup (uses in cupping therapy) belonging to 4 th millennium B.C.

Zarrin Hall

A gold or gilded utensils treasury remained from Seljuq period, and most of the utensils are decorated by Naskh, Nasta`liq (two kinds of calligraphy), and some of them with Mongolian like portraits with different designs depending on the city where they were discovered. Lajevard Hall (Azure Hall), a turquoise world; the treasuries in the hall have a turquoise-colored glaze which was popular for Iranian in the Post-Islamic era. The hall contains antiquities from 7 th and 8 th centuries related to the Ilkhanate period, and decorative utensils from Safavid and Qajar Dynasties which have a colorful glaze and portraits of Shahnameh`s personalities on themselves. The most famous object in the hall is the ceramic water jug. The library of the Abgineh Museum is located on the north-west of the main building and contains 4,000 book titles in Persian and English in the fields of archaeology, history, and art.