On a short foot, the cylindircal body with flat shoulder rising through a slightly flaring neck to a tapering spout and a mouth with an everted rim, the body finely engraved with four vertical bands of foliate scrolls enclosing four large foliate roundels, joining two horizonal bands of Arabic inscriptions in foliate Kufic script. The shoulder engraved with Kufic inscriptions amongst foliage. A loop handle connecting the body with the neck and cast with a faceted boss above with a crescent ring at the point of attachement, two similar smaller rings attatched to the upper part of the neck (one is missing) 31.5 cm. high Inscriptions: Around the the shoulder: prosperity, happiness, peace and favour. CATALOGUE NOTE The style of script found in the band on the shoulder of this ewer draws close comparison with that on the Bobrinski bucket in the Hermitage, datable to December AD 1163 (Earthly Beauty, Heavenly Art, Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam, 1999, p. 159). Eva Baer draws reference to three other metal objects that display similarly developed animal-headed script: a tray in the University of Michigan Museum of Art; a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and a vase in the British Museum (Eva Baer, Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art, New York, 1983, p. 206 and pl. 280). She argues that the Brobinski bucket style represents the earliest development, which was then continued into different styles in Persia and Mesopotamia. An alsmost simular ewer in the Al Sabah collection.