Ewer with Design of Floral Motifs and Mask of a Bearded Man

This large ewer shaped like an inverted helmet has an incurving bracket handle, spreading foot, and molded, bearded human mask under the spout. It is enameled around the body with peony branches and other floral motifs above molded elongated petals reserved on a seeded-green ground. The foot has a band of florets between decorative borders.

This type of ewer is a close copy of French silver forms developed in the 1680s. The style was later copied in Dutch and French tin-glazed earthenware (delftware), and in similar European metal or faience ewers (such as those from Rouen, France) produced in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. They were used for hand-washing, ablutions, or pouring wine, and had matching basins or stands. Some extant examples feature European coats of arms beneath the spout.