• Glassware and Ceramics Museum of Iran

Glassware and ceramics museum of Iran specializes in glassware and ceramics. This building places in Tehran 30 Tir (Qavamolsaltaneh) street and relates to the Qajar time.  It locates in historical collection, names as Qavam collection with 7000 square meters and in the 27th of April 1998 has been registered in the list of national monument of our country.

The history of the building

This building was Qavam’s house and office until 1951 and from 1953 for seven years belonged to the Egyptian embassy. In the next years respectively change to Afghanistan embassy and the bank of commerce. In 1976, this building has been bought from the bank of commerce as a specialized museum in glassware and ceramics and committed that to the former minister of culture and art.

The architecture of the museum

This museum with three floors (below ground, ground and the first floor) and 1040 square meters’ foundation has been made incorporation of Iranian and European architecture. The decoration of the building façade includes 51 type of beautiful designs of the Seljukian brickworks and existence of the porch and the columns at the entrance of the building are the architectural features of the late Qajar and the first Pahlavi. The interior part of this beautiful museum includes decorations such as mirror work, stucco ornament, carved wooden doors, and windows. The ground and the first floor connected to each other with 2 wooden resembling horseshoes that inspired from the 18th and 19th century A. D’s Russian buildings.

About the museum

Changing the project of using the Qavam building to glassware and ceramic museum of Iran assigned to Hans Hollain, the prominent Austrian architect. Hans during this project by using Iranian architectural indicators of before and after Islam and also the shape and historical features of the objects designed the showcases. In this museum arrangement of the objects representing the history and art of Iran from the prehistory time to contemporary time. The building has different parts like 7 halls for exhibiting the objects, the hall which supplies the cultural products, administrative division, and the library. The part for exhibiting the objects include 6 rooms that in the ground there are the objects from the prehistoric time to before Islam that has been collected in Mina and Boloor rooms.

The entrance part

In this part, there are a variety of materials and colors that apply in making the glasses and there are also examples of objects made from glasses.

The audiovisual room (Samei Basari)

The prehistoric man supposed dead man after his death would need the daily means of subsistence so they buried his personal items along with him so, in this hall, there is a view of a prehistoric grave that inside of it some objects has symbolically placed. Things such as the skeleton of a prehistoric man, his equipment and ornaments.

Mina room

In this room, the oldest glassware and ceramics of the museum has been displayed. Hans Hollain designed this room like the columns of Persepolis (the archeology of Achaemenian time). The oldest glassware of this room relates to the early 2nd millennium before Christ and include some glass bars obtained from Choghazanbil (Iranian temple in ancient Susa). The other part of this room include the first ceramics related to different civilizations.

Crystal room (Boloor room)

This room has been named as Boloor room because of displaying glassware in the showcases. The showcases inspired from the archeology of Achaemenian time (the columns of Persepolis) and the other showcase is in the form of Kaaba of Zoroastrian (near Shiraz).

Shell room (Sadaf room)

The reason for calling this room is its sell decoration and include the ceramics and glassware of the Islamic time.

Zarrin room

The objects that have been exposed in this room are famous as luster-painted vessels. These wares because of their decoration technique reputed as his name and would have been considered as aristocratic vessels.

Lajevard room

This room divided into two parts, the showcases of this room have inspired from the Mongols tent and that times tower tombs. The object of these two rooms includes the glassware and ceramics vessels that related to Teimurid, Ilkhanid, Safavid and Qajar time.

The other part of the museum

The library of the glassware and ceramic museum include 4000 specialized books in glass, ceramic, art… that places in the basements of the main building. The museum also has the training building that is on the north side of the yard of the museum that includes different training classes in courses which relates to the museums’ activities. There is also an exhibition in this museum that contemporary artists can show their visual and traditional arts.