Footnotes

• Provenance: Private Belgian collection; acquired in Belgium in the 1960s.
  
  This unusually large and superbly decorated pouring vessel forms part of a larger group of figurines made in Persia and Syria. The subject of these figurines is varied including animals such as monkeys, birds and sphinxes as well as musicians, horsemen, and mothers and children.
  
  Three related though smaller examples (all approx. 27cm. high) are in the Taqriq Rajeb Museum, Kuwait (Fehevari,G. Ceramics of the Islamic World in the Tareq Rajeb Museum, London, p. 113, no. 136), the Moscow State Museum of Oriental Art (Starodub, T., Treasures from Central Asia: Islamic Art Objects in the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, Arts and the Islamic World 33, London, 1998, pp. 32-5. Inv. no. N57II) and the Brooklyn Museum of Art (Inv. no. 86.227.66). The Moscow and Kuwait examples are both on a rectangular base like the present bird and the Kuwait bird has very similar facial features and striped neck detail.
  
  The finely moulded face with high cheekbones and elegantly drawn features is shared by two fragmentary lustre figurines in the Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore (48.1192) and the Pergammon Museum, Berlin (M.I.K.I5336).
  
  Another example was sold at Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian World, 23 October 2007, Lot 99).
  
  
  With thanks to Dr. Melanie Gibson for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

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Category: Islamic and Oriental Art / Islamic and Indian Art

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