Medallion of 218 glass tokens, ancient and Islamic periods 5-tray medallion featuring 218 clear or opaque, colorless or colored glass discs of varying sizes, with molded decoration and inscriptions. Includes 61 tokens from the antique period, 157 from the Islamic period. The ancient period tokens are predominantly Roman and include: 4 pâte de verre beads featuring theatrical masks in relief; 4 cabochons; an Amarna inlaid earthenware bead; 4 white glass medallions decorated with Eros, dolphin and peacock; 3 brown glass medallions: an Ibis, an emperor's profile encircled by inscriptions (illegible), a profile bust (in style); 3 brown circular medallions with brackets featuring a lion on its hind legs, a frog with inscriptions on either side and two heads wearing Phrygian caps facing each other; 1 pierced cabochon decorated with a couple facing each other in black glass; 16 green glass medallions: several decorated with female busts, one decorated with a bust wearing a chlamydia and one decorated with a bearded profile, 2 with illegible decoration, one smaller than the previous ones with stamped decoration to be deciphered; 4 circular beaded medallions without decoration in white glass; 3 medallions in white-green glass : of which one features a character, otherwise illegible; 1 brown glass medallion featuring a bust in profile; 5 undecorated in various colors; 1 colorless glass featuring two lines; 1 cobalt-blue glass featuring a highly iridescent horseman; 5 in two-tone glass, including white and violet marbled, colorless and green, colorless and yellow, colorless and blue with characters and inscriptions. Period and provenance to be determined. Tokens from the Islamic period include: - Weights from the early Islamic Umayyad (661-750) and Abbasid (750-1258) eras, including : 2 Umayyad weights in green glass; 1 Abbasid weight in colorless glass with multidirectional kufic inscriptions around a star in the name of Governor Malilk ibn Dalham; 1 Abbasid fals weight of 24 kharruba in the name of Abd al-Malik ibn Yazid (751-53); 1 weight of 3 dinars in the name of Caliph al-Mansur (754-75) ; 1 weight in the name of Abu'l Hazan, an unidentified person;1 Abbasid weight with square stamp; 5 tableware stamps; 26 calligraphic weights dating a priori from the Abbasid era (11 in colored glass with 3 lines of kufic text, 11 in colored glass with lines of multidirectional inscriptions, 4 weights inscribed with a stylized name, Allah (?), 1 weight for weighing chickpeas (Wazn Humus); 28 tokens, a priori from the early days of Islam, with calligraphic decoration; - A majority of weights from Fatimid Egypt (969-1171), including : 2 in turquoise glass inscribed in floral kufic script, one in the name of Imam an-Nasîr (first half 10th century); 4 in the name of Caliph az-Zahîr (1020-1035) (3 in green glass, the other in brown glass); 10 in the name of al-Hakim (996-1021) (9 in green glass, including 2 bearing the Shahada, 1 in brown glass) ; 15 in the name of al-Mustansîr Billah (1035-94) (2 in yellow glass, 1 in colorless glass, 8 in green glass, 1 in brown glass, 1 in colorless and purplish glass) and probably a sixteenth in iridescent green glass; 10 unidentified Fatimid weights (8 in green glass, 1 in opaque white glass, 1 in colorless glass); 16 tokens, a priori from the Fatimid period, with undeciphered concentric calligraphic decoration; - 1 black glass dirhem weight molded with a 6-petal rosette, probably from Ayyubid Egypt (1171-1250); - Several weights from Mamluk Egypt (1250-1500) including: 3 in black/brown and white marbled glass paste, 3 decorated with the Seal of Solomon; - 1 green anepigraphic glass weight; - 23 tokens with completely illegible decoration; - 1 small Ottoman-style brown glitter glass token; Approximate diameter: between 1 and 5 cm A few accidents and restorations on some, iridescent tokens. Provenance : Collection of M. R. M..., Vente Me Paul Renaud, February 21, 1976, lot 160 (for 28 tokens). Glass paste tokens, made by printing a stamp with a figurative motif or calligraphic text on still-viscous paste, had a use that is still debated today. In ancient times, these objects were used as weights or gambling chips. In the Islamic era, where they are mainly decorated with calligraphy, the commonly accepted idea, supported by the inscriptions they display, is that they were used as weights to weigh foodstuffs.... THE FULL DESCRIPTION IS AVAILABLE IN THE PDF CATALOG