Ewers are tall vessels, sometimes lidded, with a spout and were used to hold water or wine. This particular double-walled, pierced ewer (LNS 185 C) dates back to 1200-1220 CE (561-640 AH) and comes from the Iranian World.
The ewer is painted in black and cobalt-blue stain under a turquoise glaze with a long, graceful neck and a shorter spout. The openwork shell is decorated with three staggered rows of seated princely figures, each enclosed in a polygonal compartment formed by intertwined vines.
Pierced ewers must have presented Kashan potters with their greatest technical challenge. An inner container holds the contents, and is surrounded by the pierced decorative shell. Reticulated or pierced ewers come in a number of different shapes, all of which owe their origin to metalwork, and the reticulated technique, is found in metal (Watson 341).
