Not currently on display at the V&A

Rose-Water Sprinkler (Golab-pash)

Rose-Water Sprinkler
1150-1200 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Incurving foot bends back and breaks into a short vertical rim carrying the body. The body is shaped like a slightly eliposoid sphere, topped with a stepped edge and tapering neck with everted rim.

Twelve moulded figures of ducks are perched on the shoulder, all looking back and out at the viewer.

An epigraphic band framed by copper-inlaid fillets runs around the slanting platform around the neck. Below this on the shoulder is a circular frieze of overlapping volutes with lozenge-like lobes.

On the body, six roundels are engraved and enclosed by copper-inlaid frames, with pointed knots at the cardinal points. These enclose rosettes formed from knotted motifs, with a cross patterns at the centre. Between the roundels are knotted motifs.

A guilloche band runs around the foot.

Patina: dull brown to dull green, the surface pitted with needle-point light green spots of active corrosion.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleRose-Water Sprinkler (Golab-pash) (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Raised brass decorated with champlevé designs engraved and partly inlaid with silver and copper.
Brief description
Round footed vessel, brass with champlevé birds, silver and copper inlay, Arabic inscriptions and knotwork, Khurasan, Iran or modern Afghanistan, 1150-1200
Physical description
Incurving foot bends back and breaks into a short vertical rim carrying the body. The body is shaped like a slightly eliposoid sphere, topped with a stepped edge and tapering neck with everted rim.

Twelve moulded figures of ducks are perched on the shoulder, all looking back and out at the viewer.

An epigraphic band framed by copper-inlaid fillets runs around the slanting platform around the neck. Below this on the shoulder is a circular frieze of overlapping volutes with lozenge-like lobes.

On the body, six roundels are engraved and enclosed by copper-inlaid frames, with pointed knots at the cardinal points. These enclose rosettes formed from knotted motifs, with a cross patterns at the centre. Between the roundels are knotted motifs.

A guilloche band runs around the foot.

Patina: dull brown to dull green, the surface pitted with needle-point light green spots of active corrosion.
Dimensions
  • Height: 10.9cm
  • Of body diameter: 10.2 - 10.6cm
  • Of foot diameter: 6.6cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
(Persian; Kufic; epigraphic band on the neck; engraved)
Translation
With bliss, [sic], divine grace, good fortune, spiritual integrity, godliness and!
Object history
Purchased for £150 (together with M.16 - 1971) from a Kabul resident , 12 May 1971.
The object carries an export licence label in Pashtu and English
Historical context
Related models decorated in a different style are to be seen in the reserves of the museums at Herat and Ghanzi in Afghanistan. See Melikian-Chirvani, A.S, 'Les bronzes du Khorassan II' Studia Iranica, 4, 1975, I, fig 16 and 17, text pp. 65-8.
So far unrecorded on any piece is the frieze of twelve ducks (?) in the round and perched on the edge.
Subject depicted
Bibliographic reference
A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries (London: HMSO, 1982), no.48, pp.120-121.
Collection
Accession number
M.15-1971

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Record createdMarch 18, 2003
Record URL
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