Beak-Spouted Vessel

Place of OriginIran, likely Amlash

Date1000-750 BCE

Dimensionswith spout: 7 3/8 × 14 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (18.7 × 36.8 × 14 cm)
without spout: 6 1/4 × 6 × 5 5/8 × 3 1/2 in. (15.9 × 15.2 × 14.3 × 8.9 cm)
Rim: 3 9/16 in. (9 cm)

MediumBurnished earthenware, wheel-thrown

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1987.200

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionThis reddish-brown earthenware vessel features a rounded shoulder and a tall, gradually narrowing body. A hollow handle-spout curves upward from the shoulder and includes a slit for pouring. Opposite it is an unpierced vertical lug. The vessel’s surface is smoothly burnished, and a scored grid pattern appears on the flat base.

Label TextThis sophisticated vessel was created on a wooden potter’s wheel. The handle-spout was applied after the base was made, and then the entire vessel was fired in a kiln and burnished. Such fine pottery pieces were often included in wealthy graves to accompany the dead into the afterlife. This elegant earthenware jar features a gracefully arched handle that also serves as a spout, with a slit for pouring liquid. Likely originating from northwestern Iran around 1000–900 BCE, it was made on a potter’s wheel and burnished to a smooth surface. The grid pattern carved on the base may have served a decorative or symbolic function. Similar vessels have been found in burial contexts in Iran, suggesting this jar may have accompanied the dead as a grave offering. Though often labeled “Amlash,” the term refers broadly to unprovenanced finds sold through the Iranian antiquities market in the mid-20th century.Published ReferencesKawami, Trudy S., Ancient Iranian ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 1992, p. 104, repr. p. 103.Comparative ReferencesSee also Schmidt, E.F., Excavations at Tepe Hissar, Damghan, Philadelphia, 1937, pp. 212, 216, pls LX (for a related stone vessel from Tepe Hissar).

cf. Fukai, S., Persian Ceramics, Tokyo, 1984, pp. 217-222.

cf. Muscarella, Oscar White, "The Iron Age at Dinkha Tepe, Iran," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal, vol. 9, 1974, p. 47, fig. 16, no. 269, and p. 46 (for an excavated vessel with cross hatching on its underside similar to 1987.200)