IRAN, 6TH/7TH CENTURY

The decorative repertoire of this magnificent post-Sasanian parcel gilt silver vase is very similar to but slightly simpler than that of a large jug in the Hermitage Museum which was excavated from a tumulus near the village of Pavlovka in the region of Kharkov before 1823 (A. U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford University Press, 1938, pl.226). In both vessels the main band of decoration consists of large roundels containing beasts within leaf lappet wreaths divided by elegant floral motifs. Both also have an unusually pronounced band of overlapping leaf motifs around the shoulder. Both are virtually plain above and below this main band. Loukonine and Ivanov, in the Hermitage jug's more recent publication, date the ewer to between the 5th and 6th centuries (Vladimir Loukonine and Anatoli Ivanov, L'art Persan, Bournemouth and St. Petersburg, 1995, no.69, pp.98-100). A vase in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is even closer (Splendeur des Sassanides, exhibition catalogue, Bruxelles, 1993, no.91). While it has a similar crispness of detail to the Hermitage ewer and a similar narrower neck than that seen here, the piece is the same type of vessel as ours and the animal inside the roundels is, like here, a mythical bird.

The birds themselves are also exactly the same as some seen on an oval dish in the Freer Gallery dated to the 6th-7th century (Ann C. Gunter and Paul Jett, Ancient Iranian Metalwork in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1992, no.28, pp.174-176). In both cases the birds have their tail feathers curling up behind, a small ring with beads or tassles in their mouth, and a crescent on their heads. The only major difference is that ours has the flying ribbons from its neck indicating royalty.