Glassware and Ceramic Museum in Tehran

From each side, the pavement of the 30 Tir Street leads to historical and tourist attractions in the form of museums and other attractions of Tehran. When you get to the entrance door of your destination, you will find yourself in front of a beautifully-made courtyard with a garden and lively trees, both sides of which lead to a beautiful historical building dating back to the Qajar era, a building with a wooden façade, colorful glasses, and artistic design, the Abgineh or Glassware and Ceramic Museum in Tehran.

 

The word Abgineh means glassware. Though it might not be used in our colloquial language today, it is obvious that using this word instead of glassware is an evidence for the historical aspect of the objects and items exhibited.

 

The wooden staircase in the middle divides the ground floor in two sections, and also leads to two different directions in the first landing. This geometrical order and contrast might have something to do with the symmetrical mind of the Orientals, especially Iranians, throughout history.

In Glassware and Ceramic Museum in Tehran, you will see both pre-Christian pots and rose-water sprinklers, and very beautiful glass frames and bowls with images and calligraphies formed in the Iranian psyche throughout several millennia.

 

On the second floor, there are a lot of glass boxes all around the hall. The boxes contain bowls, jars, and glass perfume bottles. The colors are beautifully used in these works, and give the Abgineh a charming brilliance.

 

In the glass polygon box in the middle of the hall, there are laboratory glassware, and in the front hall, there are very beautiful glass bowls, pots, rose-water sprinklers, and frames, some of which have beautiful images and calligraphies.

 

The showcases, inspired by the columns of Persepolis, or Tachara (the Palace of Darius the Great), and some by Ka’ba-ye Zartosht at Naqsh-e Rustam located in Marvdasht, give a particular charm to the museum. The glasses found in the Choqa Zanbil Temple, dating back to the second millennium BC, handmade pottery from the Parthian period (247 BC – 224 AD), various types of pottery of the Islamic period from the city of Nishapur, golden containers from the Seljuk period (1037 – 1194), the seven-colored glaze, and so on catch the visitors’ eyes.

 

You are tempted to ask the employees and those who work there as to what they do with all this beauty every day. Then it passes your mind that being consistently, professionally close to any artistic “beauty” deprives the person of the ability and skill to enjoy it. Therefore, you ignore your question and continue your exploration.

 

You get back through the same way you came in. You pass through the garden in the middle of the yard of Abgineh Museum in Tehran to the pavement of the 30 Tir Street. There seems to be an inner voice whispering in your ear “you citizen of the 21st century, stuck between towers, skyscrapers, underpasses and overpasses of this Middle Eastern megacity, it is time for you to write this: Tehran is not all about Sadr Bridge, Milad Tower, Palladium, and the nightly carnival of the super modern cars in Andarzgoo Street. You must wash the eyes to see the historical and cultural attractions of this important city of the Old Continent”.

9/1/2023 1:04:17 AM