Lot 128. A Kashan cockerel-headed lustre pottery ewer, Persia, early 13th century; 24.2cm. height. Estimate £15,000 - £25,000. © Sotheby's.
the lustre-decorated body of squat globular form with four protruding flanges with pseudo-inscriptions between moulded standing figures, composite cock's head, old collectors' and exhibition labels to underside.
Provenance: Ex-collection Hagop Kevorkian.
Literature: P. Ackerman, Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, The Iranian Institute, New York, 1940, p.76, case 35-C: 'Cock's head ewer'
Note: "The story of Iranian culture is a record of achievement unique in duration: of a virile and expansive power, of a high and precious individuality infused with imagination, poetry, artistic adventure and soundly grounded in supreme craftsmenship" (Arthur Upham Pope in Ackerman 1940, VI).
Sotheby's. Arts of the Islamic World, London, 24 oct. 2018, 10:30 AM