POSSIBLY HERAT, AFGHANISTAN, LATE 15TH/EARLY 16TH CENTURY

This is one of a known group of inlaid brass jugs, a number of which are signed and/or dated. The dates range from the late Timurid period to the early Safavid; all can fairly certainly be attributed to Khorassan. Almost all of them bear inscriptions as part of their main decoration, but there are two examples, like the present one, which do not. One, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has a design of overall arabesque roundels on an arabesque ground (Linda Komaroff, The Golden Disc of Heaven, Costa Mesa, 1992, pl.50, p.134), while one in the David Collection has a design very close to this, but subdivided into a series of horizontal bands (Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbaek and Peder Mortensen,ULTAN, SHAH AND GREAT MUGHAL EXHIBITION CATALOGUE, COPENHAGEN, 1996, NO.258, P.279).