This belongs to a group of earky Islamic bronze ewers of which there are at least 6 examples (Baer, p.83f.). They all have a pear shapaed body, splayed foot, waisted neck separated form the body by a raised collar, crosier handle attached to the back of the horizontal rim of which the edge is carved with the profiled head of a bird or animal, and a large thumbpiece surmounting the handle in the form of a palmette or acanthus leaf. The group is ultimately derived from a type of Sassanian silver ewer and certain of this group are decorated in post Sassanian style.

The ewer found in the Caucasus and now in the Museum of Tiflis bears an inscription stating that it was made in Basra in AH 69/686-7 AD by a certain Ibn Yazid (Baer fig.166). Others date probably from the late 7th and 8th century. Like the ewer in the British Museum decorated in Sassanian style with a 'senmury' or hippocampus and acanthus scrolls, the decoration of our ewer is also in Sassanian style. The lotus flower and full palmette are close to those of the capitals and pillars at Taq-i Bustan (6th century AD) (Erdmann, pls.7-10, 12 and 14) although the presentation of the floral elements within linked diamond frames of acanthus leaves is typical of the treatment of Sassanian motifs in the Ummayad Art in Syria (Cresswell).

Baer, E.: Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art, New York 1983
Erdmann, K.: Die Kunst Irans zur Zeit der Sasaniden, Mainz 1969