Northern Iran, probably Gilan, 1000–800 BCE
Black baked clay
21.0 x 10.5 x 16.2cm LWH
Intact, extreme calcium carbonate deposits on the surface

The animal vessels, which most likely also come from the province of Gilan, reveal a special kind of abstraction. The body of this deer-shaped pouring vessel has an ovoid form and four short, thickset conical legs. The deer’s head is worked to form the spout. The small ears stick out sideways and the relatively short, six pointed antlers slant backwards. The animal’s tail is suggested but there is no evidence of any sexual organs.

André Wiese, 2011

Literature

Kunstwerke der Antike. Cahn Auktionen AG, auction catalogue Basel 22nd September 2006, Calbe 2006, 39 no. 65. R. Ghirshman, Notes Iraniennes XI. Le rhyton en Iran, Artibus Asiae 25 (1), 1966, 57–80 fig. 6. J. Settgast (ed.), Von Troja bis Amarna. The Norbert Schimmel Collection New York, exhibition catalogue Berlin, Mainz 1978, no. 158. T.S. Kawami, Ancient Iranian Ceramics from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York 1992, 201 no. 81. For the meaning of the deer, see the literature under cat. no. 9. Stiftung DKM, Iran _ Amlash, 2011, Kat.-Nr. 12.