Very little is known of Albert Pfulb, whose address in 1874, was 12, Faubourg Saint-Denis, Paris. In the same year, he is listed as in partnership with ‘Pottier’ at 42, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. Pfulb exhibited at the London International Exhibition, 1874, the Union Centrale, 1876 and the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1878 (see Pierre Sanchez, Dictionnaire des Céramistes, Peintres sur Porcelaine, verre et Email, Exposant dans les Salons, Expositions Universelles ... 1700-1920, III, Dijon, 2005, p. 1184).

This small-scale mosque lamp is only the third work to be recorded by either Pfulb or the partnership of Pfulb et Pottier. The others are a ‘footed beaker’ in the collection of the Corning Museum of Art (2005.3.116) and a verre à pied, dated circa 1888, in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (G.356)

Mamluk-style enamelled glass, and the mosque lamp form in particular, was revived and popularised in France through the efforts of Philippe-Joseph Brocard (fl. 1865-96); (see H. Blairman & Sons, Furniture and Works of Art, 2008, no. 14). Lamps on such a small scale are unusual, but a pair by Brocard (13.8 cm high) exhibited at the Vienna Weltaustellung, 1873 is in the collection of the Gewerbemuseum, Nuremberg, and another (20 cm high) is in the collection of the Musée de Verre, Charleroi. A further pair (15 cm high) is in a private collection.

Pfulb’s work is contemporary with, and of comparable quality to, that of Brocard. Other manufacturers who made Islamic-revival glass, slightly later in the nineteenth century, include J. & L. Lobmeyr of Vienna (1822-present), Emile Gallé of Nancy (1846-1904) and Nicolas-Jean Alphonse Giboin (1828-1921), whose work is discussed in Marguerite Stahl, ‘Nicolas-Jean Alphonse Giboin: Émiailleur sur verre’, Sèvres: Revue de la Société des Amis du Musée National de Céramique (14), 2005, pp. 108-18.

A larger mosque lamp of related form to the present example, dated circa 1300-40, is in the collection of the British Museum, London (see D.B. Harden, et. al.. Masterpieces of Glass, London, 1968, no. 156).