Ewer for serving chilled drinks, made from the lower half of a Chinese powder-blue porcelain vase with gilded decoration, Kangxi period (1662-1722), and Iranian silver mounts and internal fittings of copper alloy, probably 19th century.

The ceramic body of the ewer is the lower part of a powder-blue porcelain vase with gilded decoration. The cut-down body was adapted for chilling liquids by piercing holes in the sides -- one for the handle and one for the spout -- and by adding silver mounts and copper alloy internal fittings. The silver mounts consist of the spout, the handle, a tall neck, and a domed lid with a tall finial, which is set with a decorative stone. The hinged lid, which is also attached to the rim of the neck by silver chains, gives access to the container for the ice -- a roughly cylindrical fitting of copper alloy, closed at the base and open at the top, which occupies much of the interior. The liquid to be chilled was poured into the vessel through a small, lidded opening at the top of the handle, which is hollow and open at the base to allow the water to flow into the body of the ewer.

The silver mounts are richly decorated, and on the lid and the neck, this includes an extensive programme of inscriptions in Arabic. On the lid a wide band of ornament is set with four medallions containing one of two invocations to God. Narrow bands above and below it contain a Shi'ite prayer in Arabic for the Fourteen Immaculates.

The waisted neck of the ewer is divided in two by a prominent moulding. The section section above the moulding has a wide band of ornament similar to that on the lid, and including the four cartouches containing invocations. Above and below this are narrow horizontal bands, three in all, which are engraved with verses from the surah al-Baqarah (The Cow; II, verses 255-257). One of these bands occupies the rim, while the other two frame the wider band of ornament below the rim. A second wide band runs below the moulding and contains the first part of the Shi'ite prayer, "Call upon 'Ali".

Bought for 13 pounds in Iran by Robert Murdoch Smith, the museum's agent in the country.

The ewer incorporates the lower half of a powder-blue porcelain vase known as a pipa zun (琵琶尊), that is, a zun with the swelling shape of a pipa, a Chinese four-stringed lute. The zun is an ancient ritual vessel for wine, but in the Kangxi period (1662-1722) vases of this shape began to be produced as decorative objects. A connexion with antiquity is indicated by the banana-leaf pattern around the foot -- the motif is commonly seen on bronzes of the Shang and Zhou periods (first and second millennia BC). On the other hand, the literati-style landscape painted in gold on the main body of the object marks it as a decorative object.

Powder-blue porcelain was produced as an export ware as well as for the Chinese market, and this object is evidence of its import into Iran, perhaps as early as the last decades of the Safavid period (1501-1722). The vase may have been repurposed as a ewer for chilled drinks because the upper half had been broken, but it is also possible that the vase was deliberately cut in two and re-mounted as two separate objects. An example of this practice is the fate of a blue-and-white porcelain double gourd vessel of the Yuan period (1279-1368), which was cut in half at the waist (see John Carswell, “En kruka med ett brutet förflutet/A dismembered jar”, in Blåvitt, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, 2008, pp.56-9, 166-7). The bottom half, now in the V&A (1599-1876), was given a copper alloy collar, while the top half was remounted as a ewer for chilled drinks, now in the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow (1090 II). The Moscow ewer is unusual in that it bears an inscription recording that it was made waqf (i.e. the inalienable property of a Islamic charitable institution) and explicitly linking its function with 'Abbas [sc. ibn 'Ali] (see below).

Although they lack any direct reference to the context in which this ewer was used, the inscriptions on it are religious in character. It may be that it was adapted for serving chilled drinks to passers-by as a pious act. This form of charity is practised in other parts of the Islamic world, but in Iran and in Shi'ite communities elsewhere it commemorates the selfless actions of 'Abbas ibn 'Ali at the battle of Karbala' in AD 680, as related by Shi'ite tradition. The battle occurred when the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid attacked the third imam, Husayn ibn 'Ali, and his followers, who included Husayn's half-brother, 'Abbas ibn 'Ali. Yazid's forces deliberately cut Husayn's party off from the River Euphrates, the only source of water. To relieve the thirst of Husayn's family, 'Abbas forced his way through to the river to fill a water skin but was killed during his return journey.

Other ewers of this type in the V&A include 467 and 468-1874, 476-1876, 1123-1876, 637-1889, C.217-1912 and C.220-1912.

555-1878