Abguineh, Iran’s Glassware and Ceramic Museum
The old brick construction of Abguineh Museum has a relatively long history, it used to be the residence and office of Ahmad Qavam (1876 - 1955), a politician who served as Prime Minister of Iran. Afterwards, the Egyptian Embassy in Tehran took over the building and finally handed it over to the Iranian Commercial Bank. From 1976, a group of Iranian and Austrian architects refurbished the building and converted it into a museum which was opened on 1989. The decorations of the building include brickworks of the exterior facade and interior plaster cutouts, mirror works and inlaying.
As one of the Iranian famous museums, Abguineh museum comprises several halls and workshops and a library. Art works and handicrafts exhibited in this museum include three collections of porcelains, glassworks and crystals.
Porcelains
The magnificent collection of porcelains exhibits a thorough history of ceramics and porcelains made in Iran from the dawn of history until today. It also provides a bulk of information about the evolution of porcelain and its production technique. Major centers of porcelain making in Iran including Kashan, Ray, Qazvin, Gorgan and Neishabour are also introduced.
Visiting this museum, one learns about simple and colorful glazed porcelains and the art of decorating them with calligraphic designs, paintings of plants and animals and geometrical designs over and under the layer of the glaze.
Some of these porcelains enjoy paintings on the basis of proverbs and old mythical and folk tales.
Glass works
Glass works that are exhibited in this museum start from the ones made in the first and second millennia BC and extend up to modern ones. In this section the glass works production technique including the sand molds, cutting and pressing equipment are introduced. The painting method on the glass is also exhibited.
Crystals
On the ground floor hall of the museum, crystal and flint glass samples of 18th and 19th centuries are exhibited. All these samples are mostly cut and made in Europe.
Specialized library
On the northwestern courtyard of the museum, there is a specialized library which contains almost 4,000 books on archeology and the history of art. A hall is also allocated to exhibit the glassworks and porcelains made by contemporary artists and craftsmen. Workshops to teach production of glassworks, crystal cuttings, porcelains and their painting are also provided.
Source: tehrantimes.com
