For a parallel see a glass cup in the Corning museum signed by Sunbat and dated 750-799AH (possibly 786-787AH) attributed to Damascus, Syria (Corning Museum of Glass, New York 69.1.1)

Vicomte Aimé Olivier de Sanderval (1840-1919) was born in Lyon, the second of three brothers. He attended the lycée Saint-Louis in Paris and the Parisian Central School of Arts and Manufactures. Alongside Pierre Michaux, De Sanderval went on to become an early manufacturer of the velocipede (an early form of the bicycle) after travelling across France on one with his brother René.

A long-time admirer of French explorer René Caillié, de Sanderval himself explored much of ‘Lower and Middle Guinea’. He visited Labé in 1875 and travelled to Timbo by way of Boké twice, in 1880 and 1888. For many years, de Sanderval lived in the Labé and Timbo regions, and persuaded the almamy, the leader of the imamate of Futa Jallon, to grant him sizable territorial concessions. He even had coins struck while trying to establish his own realm in the Fouta Djallon region in what is now Guinea. Although the almamy’s earlier concessions were taken away from him, they played a part in the creation of a French protectorate over the Fouta Djallon area. At some point, King Luís I of Portugal bestowed on him the title comte de Sanderval. He settled down in Conakry, and the Sandervalia district of the city is named after him.

This bowl features the lustre-painted, or ‘stained’, technique which was used in Egypt and Syria from the seventh to the ninth century. Pigments containing silver and/or copper were applied to the glass and then fired in a kiln at a low temperature. The pigment is then “absorbed” beneath the surface through a chemical reaction and permanently colours – or stains – the glass, becoming part of its atomic structure