Ewer, cast, engraved, and punched bronze, Near East or Iran, 8th century. H: 35 cm, Inv. no. 27/2004. © The David Collection.

Not many metal objects have been preserved from the early Islamic period, making it difficult to determine their age and place of origin.

This ewer belongs to a transitional type in which the features began to emerge that became typical of early Islamic metal ewers, etc. The little zoomorphic legs that imitate animal hoofs are characteristic examples. The handle with beads and especially the elegant palmettes were to become common in various forms, as were the leaf-shaped decorations on the rim. While the palmettes were essentially adopted from Antiquity, the engraved quotation from the Koran, written in Kufi, is naturally purely Islamic.