- Title
- Ewer
- Date Made
- circa 1850-75
- Medium
- Silver, repoussé and chased
- Dimensions
- 12 × 5 × 7 in. (30.48 × 12.7 × 17.78 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2013.220.14
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Fashioned in the style of a Bukhara ewer or teapot, this silver ewer (and M.2013.220.15) represents a regional late variant of the Islamic ewer. It features a pear-shaped body supported by a splayed circular foot; a tall, thick neck (here rounded, but alternatively fluted); a domed lid with a bud finial; a three-sided (open on top) gently curved pouring spout. It has a complex, stylized serpentine handle with an upper terminal in the form of the gaping head of a makara (mythical aquatic animal), inspired by traditional Islamic dragon-head ewer terminals. The base of the handle is made in an abstract or floralized leonine form, likely derived from traditional Islamic leonine ewer handles. Teapots fashioned in this distinctive basic shape, but more commonly made of brass or copper, were purportedly produced in the Emirate of Bukhara (modern Uzbekistan) in the late 19th century.
Despite its hybrid vessel morphology, the ewer’s decoration is the quintessential Kashmiri "shawl" pattern, more widely known as the "paisley" pattern popularized by the eponymous Scottish shawls. It consists of highlighted scrolls of foliage with stylized mango-shaped cones (kunj) set against a background of fine leaves and floral sprigs. The body has horizontal design registers beneath a cable molding and, in the neck above it, an arched colonnade inset with flowering plants. The flared base has a band of laplets and a crenulated border. The underside is inscribed with the initials, F.E.W.
