A silver-gilt and nielloed handled jug, Persia or Central Asia, 11th/12th century

the compressed globular body with tall cylindrical neck and later ear-form handle with cone-shaped thumb-piece, with incised and nielloed decoration, including two bands, one near rim and one to shoulder with calligraphic friezes on a ground of tightly spiralling scrolls and foliate stems, the body with four medallions, three containing a bird within a six-pointed star and one with an entwined stellar motif, gilt bands to rim, shoulder and foot

In general good condition, few small cracks near rim, some dents to body, some losses to niello-work, scratches to surface, as viewed.
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inscriptions

Around the neck (partially undecipherable):
‘izz wa iqbal li’l- …. al-jalil al-sayyid abi mansur vushmin (?)bin (?) abu’l-layth
‘Glory and Prosperity to the illustrious …. the Sayyid Abi Mansur Voshmn (?) [Voshmgir ?] bin (?) Abu’l-Layth’

Around the shoulder:
'izz wa iqbal wa dawla wa sa’ada wa kirama wa ni’ma wa ghibta wa zina wasi’a wa tamkin wa nasr wa istiqama wa baqa li-sahibihi
‘Glory and Prosperity and Wealth and Happiness and Generosity and [God’s] Grace and Alacrity and ample Ornaments and Constancy and Victory and Long-life to its owner’

Deriving its shape from earlier Sassanian metalwork, notably in the compressed pyriform body and tall cylindrical neck, the elegant proportions on the present jug are complimented by the careful restraint of design. Comprising two calligraphic bands on a nielloed ground of foliate scrolls and four roundels on the body interspersed with gilt bands, this decoration differs from the earlier models which tended to be worked in relief and feature figurative images (for example, whereas the form of a Sassanian jug now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, (inv.no. S-256) is the same; it differs in style and technique of embellishment). 

Other examples of this type of decoration can be found on the vessels in the ‘Harari Hoard’, attributed to the tenth and eleventh centuries. Once owned by the collector Ralph Harari and now in the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem, this group encompasses silver rosewater bottles, incense burners, caskets, drinking vessels, a bowl and horse trapping, each with similar nielloed designs, combined with calligraphic bands and gilt details (see Hasson 2000, p.41). Two very similar silver ewers, in shape and style, containing an inscriptive band to the rim and roundels on the body, are illustrated in: V.P. Darkevich: Eastern Artistic Metalwork in the 10th-13th Century, Moscow, 2009, tables 36 and 37, nos. 1-2. These are said to come from the Ural region, located today in Russia, near the border with Kazakhstan.

This jug clearly belongs to the same tradition of silverware production from the eastern provinces of the Islamic Empire, and was probably made for a wealthy merchant or other individual, as indicated by its dedicatory inscription, wishing him glory, prosperity, wealth and happiness.