An Islamic leaf-shaped mosaic glass dish, 9th to 10th century, formed from composite canes comprising a purple centre surrounded by a thick ring in opaque white and a thin brick-red circle and white rods in a purple matrix, on a pad base, 6.8cm long, 1.9cm highNote: For a pair of similar examples in the Khalili Collection, cf. S.M. Goldstein, Glass, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Vol. XV, London 2005, pp. 86-7, nos 84-5.The technique of creating composite mosaic or “millefiori” glass cast from rods of contrasting coloured glass was used in ancient Egyptian, Greek and especially Roman glass from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE, but its use in Islamic glass from the 9th to 10th century is much rarer. During this period the vessels and gaming pieces created were generally much smaller, although the leaf-shaped small dish was one of the more popular forms, as with a large example preserved in The Corning Museum of Glass (S. Carboni and D.B. Whitehouse, Glass of the Sultans, exhibition catalogue, New York 2001, p. 150, no. 64).repaired rim chip