Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 455

This cylindrical dawat (inkwell) with a domed lid once fit into a metal penbox, where it was secured by a line of soldering along its seam. Inlaid silver forms the primary decoration of floral vines and animals, and engraved and chased floral patterns occupy the background. A piercing in the lid suggests that a ring may have once eased the opening and closing of the inkwell. Referenced in Persian poetry and histories as early as the tenth century, cylindrical inkwells with domed lids were produced in great numbers in twelfth to sixteenth century Iran.

Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver

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Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver
Inkwell with Floral and Animal Imagery, Brass; lid cast, body worked, engraved, and chased, inlaid with silver

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