- Title
- Ewer
- Date Made
- circa 1850-75
- Medium
- Silver, repoussé and chased
- Dimensions
- 14 × 5 1/2 × 7 in. (35.56 × 13.97 × 17.78 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2013.220.15
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Fashioned in the style of a Bukhara ewer or teapot, this silver ewer (and M.2013.220.14) represents a regional late variant of the Islamic ewer. It features a pear-shaped body supported by a pedestal foot; a tall, thick neck (fluted here, but alternatively rounded); a domed lid with a bud finial; and 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 form of a stylized rooster, likely derived from traditional Islamic rooster-headed ewers. Teapots fashioned in this distinctive shape, but more commonly made in brass or copper, were purportedly produced in the Emirate of Bukhara (modern Uzbekistan) in the late 19th century.
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 stylized mango-shaped cones (kunj) set against a background of fine leaves and floral sprigs. The cones are highlighted in opposing cartouches on the body, in lobed arches on the neck’s arcade, and in the domed lid’s triangular sections. The flared pedestal base has cable moldings alternating with concentric bands of a lattice inset with flowerheads and a scrolling vine. The underside is inscribed with an inventory (?) number, 1730.
