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Lot Essay
Among the surviving rosewater sprinklers of Eastern Iran, the present example is distinguished by the exceptional richness and ambition of its decoration. Its spherical body and tall, tubular neck belong to a distinctive Eastern Iranian vessel type, examples of which are known in a range of materials, including glass, silver and lead. Particularly fine examples are represented by the seven silver sprinklers discovered in the Harari hoard, now preserved in the L.A. Mayer Memorial Museum, Jerusalem, and dateable to the 10th or 11th centuries. Against this established tradition, however, the present sprinkler stands apart for the extraordinary combination of repoussé, applied birds and silver inlay that adorns its surface.
Rosewater sprinklers of this form were designed around a simple but elegant principle: the spherical body provided a reservoir for the scented water, while the elongated tubular neck allowed it to be dispensed in a controlled manner. Rosewater itself was an important element of hospitality and ceremony in the medieval Islamic world, and the vessels made to contain and dispense it could consequently be objects of considerable refinement. The decorative treatment of the present example is particularly unusual amongst published metalwork. The only published related examples with repoussé decoration appear to be a bottle in The David Collection, Copenhagen (Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk, Peder Mortensen (eds.), Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal, Copenhagen, 1996, no.138, p.178, and fig.57, p.172) and a fragmentary bottle in the Victoria and Albert Museum (A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, London, 1982, no.48, pp.120-1). Both bottles share with the present piece the repoussé figures around the shoulder. The Victoria and Albert example, however, has birds which are separately made and then applied, while the David Collection bottle has lions around the shoulder. An unpublished bottle in the al-Sabah Collection (594M) also has a similar band of raised and repoussé lions around the shoulder. None of these three has an inscription around the lower part of the body, although the Victoria and Albert bottle has a band of benedictory kufic around the base of the original neck.
The band of applied birds (or, in the case of the David and al-Sabah Collections' bottles, lions) clearly relates these bottles to the better-known magnificent candlesticks and ewers which have similar motifs around their shoulders. The birds found here tend to be used more frequently on ewers, notably a group of very impressive examples including one in the British Museum (Rachel Ward, Islamic Metalwork, London, 1993, no.56, p.78) and one in the Gallerie Estense, Modena (G. Curatola (ed.), Eredità dell'Islam, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1993, no.125, pp. 234-7). One of the finest of this group of ewers is in the Museum in Tiflis; its inscription shows that it was made in Herat in 1181 AD, see Sheila R. Canby, Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi and A. C. S. Peacock, Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, no.85, p.155.
Rosewater sprinklers of this form were designed around a simple but elegant principle: the spherical body provided a reservoir for the scented water, while the elongated tubular neck allowed it to be dispensed in a controlled manner. Rosewater itself was an important element of hospitality and ceremony in the medieval Islamic world, and the vessels made to contain and dispense it could consequently be objects of considerable refinement. The decorative treatment of the present example is particularly unusual amongst published metalwork. The only published related examples with repoussé decoration appear to be a bottle in The David Collection, Copenhagen (Kjeld von Folsach, Torben Lundbæk, Peder Mortensen (eds.), Sultan, Shah and Great Mughal, Copenhagen, 1996, no.138, p.178, and fig.57, p.172) and a fragmentary bottle in the Victoria and Albert Museum (A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, London, 1982, no.48, pp.120-1). Both bottles share with the present piece the repoussé figures around the shoulder. The Victoria and Albert example, however, has birds which are separately made and then applied, while the David Collection bottle has lions around the shoulder. An unpublished bottle in the al-Sabah Collection (594M) also has a similar band of raised and repoussé lions around the shoulder. None of these three has an inscription around the lower part of the body, although the Victoria and Albert bottle has a band of benedictory kufic around the base of the original neck.
The band of applied birds (or, in the case of the David and al-Sabah Collections' bottles, lions) clearly relates these bottles to the better-known magnificent candlesticks and ewers which have similar motifs around their shoulders. The birds found here tend to be used more frequently on ewers, notably a group of very impressive examples including one in the British Museum (Rachel Ward, Islamic Metalwork, London, 1993, no.56, p.78) and one in the Gallerie Estense, Modena (G. Curatola (ed.), Eredità dell'Islam, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 1993, no.125, pp. 234-7). One of the finest of this group of ewers is in the Museum in Tiflis; its inscription shows that it was made in Herat in 1181 AD, see Sheila R. Canby, Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi and A. C. S. Peacock, Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, no.85, p.155.