A Timurid brass jug (mashrabe), Herat, Afghanistan, 15th/early 16th century

Ex-private collection Darwin Flossie (b.1938), Idaho, acquired 1971

inscriptions

In the cartouches, repeat of two verses from two couplets of a ghazal of Hafiz

Jugs (mashrabe) of this type are among the most widely recognised metalworks of the Timurids. The form has been related to Ming pottery of the early fifteenth century which shares the same profile with a squat, globular body, straight cylindrical neck, and dragon handle (see British Museum, London, inv. no.1950,0403.1, Roxburgh 2005, pp.423-4; and Lentz and Lowry 1989, p.354).

Dated examples range from 1456-57 (Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, inv. no.I-3606, Komaroff 1992a, pp.153-5, Cat.3) to 1512 (David Collection, Copenhagen, inv. no.34/1986). Examples exist in other media, especially jade, the earliest being the remarkable jade jug of Ulugh Beg (1394-1449) in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (inv. no.328), and later the black jade jug inscribed with the name of Shah Isma’il I (r.1501-24) in the Topkapi Palace (inv. no.1844). While the style appears to have fallen out of fashion later in Safavid Persia, it was reprised in Ottoman silverwork, for example a silver jug sold in these rooms, 13 October 2004, lot 161.

The decorative vocabulary is generally consistent amongst published examples, most often presenting an elaborately decorated body and neck with foliate stems, sometimes with calligraphic cartouches. Komaroff has related these designs to manuscript illumination, suggesting a dialogue between metalworkers and the kitab-khaneh (see Komaroff 1992b, for a detailed discussion on the calligraphic inscriptions of these vessels). The foot is often left plain or has cursory decoration as shown here. Craftsmen played, however, with the arrangement and format of the decorative registers to create variety in their output. Some examples are inlaid with silver and gold (see the David Collection example mentioned above, and Christie’s, London, 28 October 2020, lot 26, 20 April 2016, lot 6, and 23 April 2015, lot 17), others produced in a different base metal, such as an example in silver sold in these rooms, 22 April 2015, lot 28.

The present example presents this typical decorative scheme. The ground is worked with flowers arranged as quatrefoils within swirling foliate tendrils. Two registers of the body present calligraphic cartouches with verses of Hafiz in naskh. In this rare example, the body was never intended to be inlaid, and the impact is rather focused on the comparatively large stature of the vessel.