Realistically modelled in the form of a standing bull, decorated with an opaque white alkaline glaze and vegetation in overglaze brown lustre, its horns of crescent shape, its eyes painted, a hole in its back for the reception of liquid joined to the neck by a handle, a spout at its muzzle, the whole supported on a stand.
Literature
There is a vessel of identical form but slightly different decoration in the Victoria and Albert Museum, on loan from the Ades family, catalogued as Persian (from Kashan, found at Jurjau), last quarter of the 12th century. An Iranian animal, larger than this one but of identical form, can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1992.106, purchased with the aid of Friends of the Ashmolean). It is catalogued as 'North Iranian, probably from Kashan, c.AD1180-1220'.