Aftabeh ewer and basin, Near East, 19th century Made of hammered, cast, engraved and partly openwork copper alloy. The ewer is on a truncated cone base, with a bulbous body featuring a sinuous spout finished with an animal head, and topped by a curved handle with a square opening that closes with a hinged pyramidal lid. The basin is on a cylindrical base, the convex body encircled by a wide flat lip highlighted by a frieze of cut-out lambrequins. The basin is closed by a partially openwork soap dish with a bulbous handle. Engraved decoration in several registers of interlacing, mandorla and mantling on either side of a frieze alternating medallions with scrolls of palmettes and epigraphic cartouches. Ewer height: 33 cm; basin height: 11 cm; basin diameter: 39.5 cm Oxidation, scratches, damage to the base of the spout, repaired damage to the base of the ewer, minor knocks. While the engraving and the Thuluth calligraphy of the inscriptions evoke Near Eastern brassware, the ewer takes up the bulbous shape with zoomorphic spout of Safavid and Mughal aftabehs.