纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 057海德薇玻璃杯（6）（在线收听）

"The contact between Europe and the Middle East in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was built around some quite intense trading contact; the Venetians, Genoese, Pisans in particular, managed to carry on their business. This sometimes caused a certain amount of scandal, as you can imagine - that they were still present in the port in Alexandria, for instance, whilst Saladin was preparing his campaigns against the Christians in the Holy Land. But the basis of this trade was the exchange of raw materials, really, which came out of the Islamic world - notably silks, glassware, ceramics, things like this which could not be produced to anything like the same quality within western Europe."

And it's this phenomenon of trade coexisting with war that explains one of the most extraordinary things about the Hedwig beaker. The design of the Hedwig beakers all feature similar images: a lion, a griffin, an eagle, flowers and geometric motifs, but this beaker is the only one that combines all these elements. There is a lion and a griffin, each raising a paw in homage to the eagle that stands between them, and the deep-cut design runs all the way round the glass. A mould must have been pressed into the glass while it was still hot and soft, and then details of the texture and pattern were meticulously carved. You get a real sense of feather and fur, but above all, when you look at this you're struck by the style.

十二世纪至十三世纪，中东与欧洲维持着密切的贸易往来，与威尼斯人、热那亚人和比萨人更是持续地进行商品交易。不难想象，这一情况有时会招致一定的反感，例如这些人尚在亚历山大港时，萨拉丁却着手与基督徒争夺圣地。贸易的主要目的是用西方的原材料交换产自伊斯兰世界的奢侈品，如丝绸、玻璃制品和陶瓷等，当时整个西欧都无法生产出质量能与之媲美的物品。

贸易与战争并存的局面，正是使海德薇玻璃杯非同寻常的一大原因。所有的海德薇玻璃杯都带有一些相类似的图案：狮子、狮身鹫首兽、鹰、花卉和几何图案，但只有本馆收藏的这一个集结了以上所有元素。上面的狮子与狮身鹫首兽各举起一只爪，宣誓效忠于立在它们中间的鹰。整个杯壁布满深深的刻痕，想必是趁玻璃还滚烫柔软的时候压上模具，一丝不苟地雕刻出纹理与图案的细节，从而呈现羽毛和兽皮的特点，而最重要的是，它极具风格，不明就里的人也许会把它当作二十世纪三十年代北欧装饰派艺术的作品。这款杯子与制作于中世纪欧洲的任何玻璃制品都大相径庭，也许正是因此才会有人把它们与神迹联系起来。