Large Storage Jar for Cool Water With a Bejeweled Lion, Hare, and Deer

Unknown

8th–10th century · Earthenware; applied, impressed, and incised decoration, unglazed · Islamic Art

Other large jars, similar to this one, display inscriptions suggesting that they were used to store water, which would be kept cool by evaporation through the vessels’ unglazed porous walls. Whether incised, molded, stamped, or in the barbotine technique (in which rolled strips and circles of clay are applied to the surface), the vegetal and geometric motifs on these containers were likely inspired by pre-Islamic designs.

Artist

Unknown

Date

8th–10th century

Medium

Earthenware; applied, impressed, and incised decoration, unglazed

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. E. S. David, in memory of her husband, E. S. David, 1998