Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 32
A rare enamelled bronze Rosewater Sprinkler probably Persia, 12th/ 13th Century
21 April 2015, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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A rare enamelled bronze Rosewater Sprinkler
probably Persia, 12th/ 13th Century
probably Persia, 12th/ 13th Century
of flattened globular form on a small splayed foot with a short waisted neck, cast with teardrop cartouches to either side containing enamelled plaques depicting a prancing lion to one side, and a palmette flanked by two birds on the other
13.5 cm. high
13.5 cm. high
Footnotes
The flattened globular form of the present lot can be paralleled in glass bottles of the 12th/ 13th Century in the Islamic world. Similar depictions on both the lion and the birds flanking a palmette can be seen on bath scrapers attributed to Persia circa 12th Century (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, pp. 116-17, cat. Ab.11). The paired birds are also seen on jewellery of the period, for example gold and bronze pendants in the L A Mayer Memorial Institute for Islamic Art (Rachel Hasson, Early Islamic Jewellery, Jerusalem, 1987, p. 43, nos. 42 and 43).