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Lot 184

A large Khorasan copper inlaid bronze Ewer
Persia, second half of 12th Century

10 April 2008, 14:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

£10,000 - £15,000

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A large Khorasan copper inlaid bronze Ewer
Persia, second half of 12th Century

with slightly flaring, cylindrical body, flat shoulder, truncated conical neck rising to a covered spout with flaring lip, strap handle with knop, the body incised with a lobed medallion containing floral interlace and a copper inlaid crescent roundel, either side a vase of flowers with a scrolling floral roundel, above a frieze of kufic inscription filled cartouches, pursuant animals and birds, and crescent roundels, the shoulder with a band of human-headed inscription and palmette roundels, the neck with further kufic inscription and palmette decoration
37 cm. high

Footnotes

The style of script found in the band on the shoulder of this ewer draws close comparison with that on the Bobrinski bucket in the Hermitage, datable to December AD 1163 (Earthly Beauty, Heavenly Art, Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam, 1999, p. 159). Eva Baer draws reference to three other metal objects that display similarly developed animal-headed script: a tray in the University of Michigan Museum of Art; a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and a vase in the British Museum (Eva Baer, Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art, New York, 1983, p. 206 and pl. 280). She argues that the Brobinski bucket style represents the earliest development, which was then continued into different styles in Persia and Mesopotamia.

Additional information