Brass jugs of this form were being made in Persia - possibly Herat - from the middle of the fifteenth to the early sixteenth century. In many examples the handle has survived; of S-form with the upper terminal joining the rim in the form of a dragon-head.

The decoration of silver and more rarely gold inlay consists of foliate ornament arranged in registers and closely related to contemporary book illumination. The shape dates back to the thirteenth century and
continued in silver under the Ottomans into the seventeenth. The closest comparison with the present jug is shown by an example in the British Museum dateable to the late fifteenth century, both of which show the same arrangement of inscriptions and also the two minor bands either side of the central band on the body (Komaroff, L.: 'Persian Verses of Gold and Silver: the Inscriptions on Timurid Metalwork', in, Golombek, L. and Subtelny, M.: Timurid Art and Culture - Iran and Central Asia in the fifteenth Century, Leiden 1992, pl.13, p.135). The present jug is inscribed around the neck with Persian verses; the inscriptions on the body within cartouches are much worn and appear to be Arabic.