# Twelve-sided Ewer with Sphinxes and Human-Headed Inscriptions > Unidentified metalworking workshop, Iran, Khurasan (region and continuity of tradition disputed for this date) - 1300-1350 (Cleveland Museum of Art's own dating, per its Open Access API tombstone) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/unidentified-khurasan-metalworker-ilkhanid-1300-1350/cleveland-twelve-sided-ewer-sphinxes/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-15 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unidentified metalworking workshop, Iran, Khurasan (region and continuity of tradition disputed for this date) - **Date:** 1300-1350 (Cleveland Museum of Art's own dating, per its Open Access API tombstone) - **Medium:** Hammered sheet brass, inlaid with silver - **Dimensions:** Overall height 44.8 cm (17 5/8 in.); no further dimensions published in the sources consulted - **Object type:** Islamic metalwork - **Period:** Ilkhanid period (1256-1353), per the Cleveland Museum of Art's own culture field - **Current location:** The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, Gallery 116 (Islamic) - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A tall, twelve-sided ewer of hammered brass inlaid with silver, dated by the Cleveland Museum of Art to 1300-1350 and cataloged to Iran, Khurasan, in the Ilkhanid period. Crouching and seated lions stand in relief on the spout and neck; the upper body carries winged hare-like creatures among foliate scrolls; a band of sphinxes processes around the center; and the base is encircled by an inscription in human-headed naskhi, letters whose upper strokes terminate in human heads, a decorative technique the museum itself calls unique to Islamic metalwork.The museum's own regional label sits in tension with the wider documented history of the craft: the Mongol conquest ended the major pre-conquest Khurasan metalworking centers of Herat, Nishapur and Merv in 1220-1222, and the standard modern survey of the discipline attributes most luxury metalwork of this ewer's own date range instead to Azarbaijan and Fars. Whether this vessel is a genuine surviving Khurasan tradition, a workshop elsewhere consciously reproducing an inherited Khurasan repertoire, or a later revival built from surviving older objects as models, is not settled in the sources consulted.Its documented ownership begins only with the New York dealer Hagop Kevorkian, who sold it to Cleveland in 1945 using the J. H. Wade Fund, the same fund that had bought the museum's Wade Cup the year before. A 1913 note in The Burlington Magazine describes and illustrates an inlaid brass ewer with an embossed lion and a human-headed inscription band, then in the Preece Collection of the British consul-collector John Richard Preece and on exhibition at Vincent Robinson's Galleries in London, attributed at the time to 13th-century Mosul; Cleveland's own published bibliography for this accession cites that exact note, but no source consulted independently confirms the two objects are one and the same, and this record does not bridge that gap with a guess. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1300-1350** Unidentified workshop, region disputed (Khurasan per Cleveland's own current catalogue) `[disputed]` (manufacture) Cleveland's own catalogue and Open Access API date the vessel 1300-1350 and assign it to Iran, Khurasan, Ilkhanid period. Encyclopaedia Iranica's own survey of the discipline states that post-Mongol luxury metalwork of this exact date range is largely attributable instead to Azarbaijan and Fars, since the Mongol conquest had already ended the major pre-conquest Khurasan metalworking centers by 1222. No source consulted resolves the tension between the museum's regional label and that broader synthesis, or establishes whether the vessel reflects a surviving Khurasan tradition, a workshop elsewhere copying an inherited repertoire, or a later revival. - **1350-by 1913** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No owner, findspot or location is documented for roughly five and a half centuries between the vessel's proposed manufacture and its earliest possible documented sighting. - **by 1913-unknown** Possibly the Preece Collection (John Richard Preece), on exhibition at Vincent Robinson's Galleries, London `[disputed]` (exhibition and possible sale) A July 1913 note in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, cited in Cleveland's own published bibliography for this accession, describes and illustrates an inlaid brass ewer with a relief lion and a human-headed inscription band, stating it 'belongs to the Preece Collection, now on exhibition in Messrs. Vincent Robinson's Galleries.' John Richard Preece (1843-1917), British consul and consul-general at Isfahan, is independently documented as a real collector of Persian art whose collection entered the market around 1913. The identification of the 1913 object with this specific accession rests on Cleveland's own bibliographic citation; it is not independently confirmed, the 1913 note does not mention sphinxes or twelve facets, and the note's own attribution (13th-century Mosul) is superseded by Cleveland's current cataloguing (14th-century Khurasan). - **1913 or unknown-unknown, by 1945** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No owner or location is documented between the possible 1913 London sighting (or, if that identification is wrong, manufacture) and Hagop Kevorkian's ownership by 1945. A citation in Cleveland's own bibliography to a 1916 Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin, covering the museum's own inaugural exhibition, could not be read in full and may or may not document an intermediate appearance of this object in Cleveland itself, possibly on loan, three decades before purchase. - **unknown-1945** Hagop Kevorkian, New York `[documented]` (dealer stock, sold to museum) The only privately named owner in Cleveland's own provenance record, dated by the museum '?-1945.' Kevorkian is independently documented as a major New York dealer in Persian and Islamic material across exactly this period, and as the dealer who separately sold the Freer Gallery its Ayyubid canteen in 1941. No date is given for when Kevorkian himself acquired this ewer, and no purchase price paid to him by Cleveland has been found. - **1945-present** The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio `[documented]` (purchase) Accessioned 21 February 1945 as 1945.27, purchased from the J. H. Wade Fund, an endowment from the bequest of J. H. Wade (died 1926) rather than a personal acquisition by Wade himself. Added to the museum's own Islamic Art exhibition already in progress (3 November 1944-2 February 1945), and exhibited repeatedly since, most recently in the 2021-2022 Islamic art gallery rotation. Still on display, Gallery 116 Islamic, and digitized as a rotatable 3D model. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - This object has never been offered at public auction in any source consulted. It was bought privately from the dealer Hagop Kevorkian, with the sale completed by the accession date of 21 February 1945. No purchase price has been found; there is accordingly no hammer price and no buyer's premium to separate. ## Open questions - Is the ewer described and illustrated in a 1913 Burlington Magazine note, then in the Preece Collection and on exhibition at Vincent Robinson's Galleries, London, the same object as this accession? Cleveland's own bibliography cites the note for this accession, but the 1913 text does not mention sphinxes or twelve facets, and attributes the piece to 13th-century Mosul rather than 14th-century Khurasan. - Does a 1916 Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin article on the closing days of the museum's own inaugural exhibition, also cited in Cleveland's bibliography for this accession, document a loan appearance of this specific object in Cleveland three decades before its 1945 purchase? The article's full text could not be accessed for this record. - Where was the object, under whichever attribution, between its manufacture (1300-1350) and its first documented sighting, at the earliest in 1913 and at latest by 1945? No owner is recorded for the gap. - How and when did Hagop Kevorkian acquire the piece, and what did the Cleveland Museum of Art pay him for it in 1945? Neither fact is published in the sources consulted. - Is 'Khurasan' still the correct region for an inlaid brass object of this construction dated 1300-1350, given that the standard modern survey of the field attributes most post-Mongol luxury metalwork of exactly this date range to Azarbaijan and Fars instead? No source consulted addresses this specific object against that broader synthesis. - Does this ewer represent a continuous Khurasan workshop lineage surviving the Mongol conquest, several workshops elsewhere copying an inherited Khurasan repertoire, or a later revival modeled on surviving pre-Mongol objects? The scholarship argues methods for individual objects but does not resolve this question for the group as a whole. - What does the base inscription actually say? No source consulted publishes a transliteration or translation. - What does Eva Baer's 1965 iconographic study specifically argue about the sphinx band on this object, beyond citing its existence? The monograph could not be accessed directly for this record. ## Sources - [1] The Cleveland Museum of Art, collection record 1945.27, Twelve-sided Ewer with Sphinxes and Human-Headed Inscriptions. Tombstone, dimensions, medium, culture, date, description, did-you-know note, provenance, exhibition history, citation bibliography, CC0 image and Sketchfab 3D model, read via the museum's Open Access API (object id 124286) and its public catalogue page. - [2] [W. R. Lethaby, ed.], 'Notes,' The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 23, no. 124 (July 1913), pp. 246-251, including the unsigned item 'A 13th-Century Ewer Probably Made at Mosul.' Read in full from the digitized volume on the Internet Archive (identifier burlingtonmagazi23londuoft), OCR text. Cited in the Cleveland Museum of Art's own bibliography for accession 1945.27 as 'Mentioned: p. 247; Reproduced: p. 248'; the identification of the object described with this accession is not independently confirmed in this record. - [3] 'Closing Days of the Inaugural Exhibition,' The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 3, no. 3 (1916), pp. 1-4. Cited in the Cleveland Museum of Art's own bibliography for accession 1945.27 as 'Reproduced: p. 8; mentioned: p. 9.' Full text not accessible during this research (JSTOR access-restricted). Flagged for direct verification. - [4] Howard Hollis, 'Two Inlaid Brasses,' The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 33, no. 4 (April 1946), pp. 39-43. Cited in the Cleveland Museum of Art's own bibliography for accession 1945.27 as 'Mentioned: pp. 39-40; Reproduced: p. 41.' Full text not accessible during this research (JSTOR access-restricted). Hollis was the museum's own curator of Oriental Art, 1929-1945; given the title and date, this article plausibly discusses both this ewer and the Wade Cup, bought within months of each other via the same fund, but that connection is not confirmed by any text read for this record. - [5] 'Part II. Annual Report Issue for the Year 1945,' The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 33, no. 6 (1946), pp. 103-130. Cited in the Cleveland Museum of Art's own bibliography for accession 1945.27 as 'Mentioned: p. 107.' Full text not accessible during this research. Flagged for direct verification. - [6] Eva Baer, Sphinxes and Harpies in Medieval Islamic Art: An Iconographical Study (Jerusalem: Israel Oriental Society, 1965). Cited in the Cleveland Museum of Art's own bibliography for accession 1945.27 as 'Mentioned: p. 14, fn. 53; Reproduced: Pl. XIV, fig. 24.' A digitized copy exists on the Internet Archive but requires an authenticated loan to read and returned an authorization error during this research. Flagged for direct verification before any specific claim about Baer's own argument regarding this object is treated as settled. - [7] Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Metalwork.' Read via an archived copy of the page. Source for the account of Khurasan production centers, the Mongol destruction of those centers in the 1220s, the post-Mongol shift of luxury metalwork production to Azarbaijan and Fars, and Ilkhanid-period patrons including Abu Sa'id Bahador Khan and the Injuid ruler Abu Eshaq. - [8] Richard Ettinghausen, 'The Wade Cup in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Its Origin and Decorations,' Ars Orientalis, vol. 2 (1957), pp. 327-366. Read in full from the digitized volume of Ars Orientalis vol. 2 (1957) on the Internet Archive (identifier arsorientalisart21957univ), OCR text. Cited here for the historiography and method of the Khurasan-school attribution debate and the chronology of the Mongol destruction of Herat, Nishapur and Merv, not for any claim that Ettinghausen discussed this specific ewer. - [9] A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982). The monograph itself was not read directly during this research; its classification of hammered-sheet, silver-inlaid brass wares as products of 'the Khorasan school' of the later 12th and early 13th centuries is cited here via a bibliographic listing and secondary characterization. Flagged for direct verification. - [10] Graces Guide, 'John Richard Preece.' Source for Preece's dates (1843-1917), his career with the Indo-European Telegraph Department and as British consul and consul-general at Isfahan, and the obituary description of him as 'a noted collector of Persian carpets, china, and curios.' - [11] Wikipedia, 'Hagop Kevorkian.' Tertiary source for the dealer's biography: dates, excavations at Sultanabad and Rey, New York and Paris galleries, and criticism of his 1911 exhibitions. Flagged for replacement with an obituary or an archival source. - [12] The Cleveland Museum of Art, collection record 1944.485, The Wade Cup with Animated Script. Used for the comparison plate; CC0 status and image confirmed directly via the museum's Open Access API during this research. - [13] The Cleveland Museum of Art, collection record 1985.22, Jug (Nishapur, Khurasan, 12th century). Used for the comparison plate; CC0 status and image confirmed directly via the museum's Open Access API during this research. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.