Rare glass pen box, Iran, Syria or Fatimid Egypt, 10th-11th centuryClear colourless glass, blown and moulded, the wheel-cut decoration made of concentric circles, ovals and baguettes, fragments of the original metal frame remain. Length: 11,8 cm Important wrinkles , small chips around the fixing holes . Provenance: Former collection of René Huyghe (1906-1997), former curator of the Louvre Museum . This type of glass case is very rare, especially in this intact condition. It is part of a small group of pieces, probably pencil boxes, which would have come from Egypt or Iran. An example in the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, shows similar decoration of simple geometric shapes cut with a wheel (AKM652). It is attributed to Iran or West Asia and is dated to the 10th or 11th century. The Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin holds a box (I.2199) made of transparent colourless glass without iridescence, attributed to 11th-century Fatimid Egypt, while another pen box is believed to be in the Treasury of the Duomo of Capua in Italy. An extremely rare and intact clear wheel-cut glass penbox, Iran, Syria or Fatimid Egypt, 10th-11th century