{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O38977"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O38977/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FE1208/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FE1208/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2012FE1208","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AF6903","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O38977/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O38977","accessionNumber":"M.388-1911","objectType":"Bowl","titles":[{"title":"bowl","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Bell-metal bowl, with a rib formed from double bevelling framed by raised fillets encirling the top, above which is a vertical rim.  \r\n\r\nThe external decoration:\r\n\r\nThe engraved and partly inlaid decorative patterns are arranged in a series of concentric bands leading down to the roundel on the underside.\r\nFrom the top, around the vertical rim is a foliate scroll, on a hatched ground divided into six sections by undecorated roundels, and framed by two incised fillets.\r\n\r\nImmediately below the rib, is a band of guilloche, and then the main epigraphic band with borders.  The epigraphic frieze is divided into four sections, the intervals decorated  with copper-inlaid rosettes which knot to form a cross pattern at their centre.  The roundels' frames interlock with bands that frame the inscription.\r\nThe tall characters stand on a stippled ground of foliate scrolls.  The Kufic script is plaited and animated with lions' heads, a dragons' heads and human faces.\r\nBeneath, is a band of foliate scrolls with borders.  \r\n\r\nIn the lower border twelve roundels, their circular frames interlacing with the two bands of the border and multiple knots separating them, enclose the signs of the Zodiac:\r\n1.  Aries: a goat in repose\r\n2.  Taurus: a humped bull walking to the left\r\n3.  Gemini: two human-faced birds\r\n4. Cancer: a crab approaching a human-faced solar disc.\r\n5.  Leo: a feline looking back\r\n6.  Virgo: a cross-legged figure holding two ears of corn with outstretched hands\r\n7.  Libra: a cross-legged figure sitting behind the horizontal bar of a steelyard and steadying the chains holding two bowl-shaped trays\r\n8.  Scorpio: a scorpion, its tail curving to the right\r\n9.  Sagittarius: a siren shooting her bow at the monster-head which terminated her own knotted tail\r\n10.  Capricorn: an ibex with long curving horns, in repose\r\n11. Aquarius: a man pulling a bucket out of a well.  The chain goes over a pulley.\r\n12.  Pisces: two inverted curving fishes\r\n\r\nOn the underside a frieze of running animals frames, two hares and four dogs on a scrolling ground, frame a roundel enclosing symetrical knotted patterns.\r\n\r\nThe internal decoration:\r\n\r\nOn the upper rim six epigraphic sections are widely spaced with knotted foliate scrolls.\r\nBelow, an epigraphic frieze is framed by two plain bands edged with pearl borders and , enclosed by twin fillets.  Below that, upward pointing interlocked arches are tipped with pointed bud and circular side lobes.\r\nFurther down, twelve engraved fishes framed by twin fillets swim against a stippled ground of foliate scrolls.  Another epigraphic band frames the central rossette which in essence is a double Star-of-Solomon pattern.\r\n\r\nPatina: predominantly ashy black, and pale lunar yellow hue of the alloy coming through on the much-rubbed underside and on the inner surface of the walls.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"bell metal","id":"AAT10958"},{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"copper","id":"AAT11020"}],"techniques":[{"text":"cast","id":"x32615"},{"text":"turned","id":"AAT53158"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Bell-metal, cast with engraved champlevé decoration, partly inlaid with silver and copper","categories":[{"text":"Islam","id":"THES48932"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"}],"styles":[{"text":"Iranian","id":"x35873"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"MES","id":"THES48607"},"images":["2012FE1208","2006AF6903"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES394890"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bowl","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Khorasan","id":"THES412603"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"early 13th century","earliest":"1200-01-01","latest":"1250-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"11.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"22.2 - 22.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of body","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"21.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of opening","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"1.6","unit":"kg","qualifier":"nifill","date":{"text":"22/02/2022","earliest":"2022-02-22","latest":"2022-02-22"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"Persian","medium":"","method":"engraved","position":"outer epigraphic frieze","script":"Kufic","translation":"Divine grace and..","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Persian; Kufic; outer epigraphic frieze; engraved"},{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"inner upper inscription","script":"kufic","translation":"With bliss and divine grace, with bliss and divine grace, with bliss and divine grace and, with bliss and divine grace and,  and and with divine grace and, with bliss and divine grace.","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"kufic; inner upper inscription"},{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"lower epigraphic frieze","script":"naskhi","translation":"Lasting might, auspicious fate, good frotune, spiritual integrity, bliss, thankfulness [to God], that which brings thankfulness, prophetic intercession, that which brings intercession, God's favour,....., lasting life to its owner.","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"naskhi; lower epigraphic frieze"},{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"third and last inner epigraphic band","script":"kufic","translation":"With divine grace and divine grace and divine grace and divine grace and divine grace and divine grace and divine grace and divine grace and godliness.","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"kufic; third and last inner epigraphic band"}],"objectHistory":"Purchased for £40 from Mr L Blumenreich, 83 Dartmouth Road, Brondesbury, N.W., 27 January 1911.\r\nPurchased as central Asian.\n\nHistorical significance: No other pre-Safavid bowl has any engraved decoration on the inner surface of its walls, according to Melikian-Chirvani, 1982 p. 95.\r\n\r\nAlso according to Melikian-Chirvani, 1982, p.95 - In this style and period,  the V&A bowl is, by far, the finest piece in the world.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bell metal bowl, cast, turned, engraved and inlaid with silver and copper with signs of the zodiac. Part of the inscription is animated, Iran (Khorasan), 13th century.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Melikian-Chirvani, A.S. <u>Islamic Metalwork from the Islamic World,</u> London:HMSO, 1982, p94-96, ISBN 0 11 290252 9"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Grohmann, A. 'Die Bronzeschale M.388 - 1911 im Victoria and Albert Museum' in R. Ettinghausen, ed., <u>Aus der Welt der islamischen Kunst,</u> Berlin, 1959, pp.125-38, 15 figures."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Baer, E. <u>Sphinxes and Harpies in Medieval Islamic Art,</u> Jerusalem, 1965, pl. LIII, fig.94, showing Taurus and Gemini; see pp. 69, 75."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Melikian-Chirvani, A.S. 'Les Bronzes du Khorassan' in <u>Studia Iranica,</u> 3, 1974. I, pp.43-5, fig.16, pl. XIII"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Al Khemir, Sabiha,  <u>Beauty and Belief. Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture</u>, (Brigham Young University of Art, 2012), ISBN: 9780842528115"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"zodiac symbols","id":"AAT9937"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"BOWL\r\nBell-metal, cast with engraved champleve decoration, partly inlaid with silver and copper.\r\nOn the lower border are engraved the signs of the Zodiac. This bowl is the finest example of its style and period to survive.\r\nKhorasan: 13th century\r\n\r\nBOWL.\r\nBronze, damascened with silver and copper.\r\nSARACENIC (MOSUL); 13th CENTURY.\r\nM. 388-1911.\r\n\r\nBOWL.\r\nLight bronze, engraved and inlaid with silver and copper, part of the inscription being in \"animal-headed\" script.\r\nPERSIAN; 12th century.\r\nM. 388-1911.\r\nSee Adolf Grahmann, Die Bronzeschale M. 388-1911 in Victoria and Albert Museum, in Aus der Welt der islamischen Kunst, Festschrift für Ernst Kühnel zum 75 Geburstag (Berlin, 1959), pp. 1250138.","date":{"text":"Used until 11/2003","earliest":"2003-11-01","latest":"2003-11-30"}}],"partNumbers":["M.388-1911"],"accessionNumberNum":"388","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":1911,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-02","recordCreationDate":"2000-04-20","availableToBook":false}}