Gorgeous glass, this. Ewers were used to sprinkle rosewater and other scented oils and perfumes, just as the more upright Rose Water Sprinklers were. They are some of the most intricately worked of the late Persian glass. More beautiful than the utilitarian bottle glass, the ewers have been collected for quite some time. In fact, the Metropolitan Museum has 42 late Persian ewers, gifted to them from a collector in the late 1800s!
The two ewers above, two of the 20 or so currently in my collection in January 2017, demonstrate the changes technology through time. The painted ewer on the left is clearly earlier glass manufacture, with more impurities in the glass, more obvious and cruder handwork in the applied glass, and a less robust quality of glass. It most likely dates from the late 17th or 18th century. The stunning cobalt ewer on the right has been passed down through the family of origin until I purchased it in 2013, and was originally used in the mid-19th century. The glass is thicker, purer, the colours richer.
Ewers
