Fragment of a Cup Decorated with a Crane
Unknown · Sasanian, sixth to seventh century AD
Only part of a shallow oval cup survives, but enough remains to show a long-legged crane standing in the centre, its neck curved and its plumage picked out with gilding against the plain silver. The bird was worked in low relief and then engraved with short strokes for the feathers, and a ring of gilding once framed the whole scene. Notice the beaded border along the surviving rim and the way the gold has worn on the highest points where thumbs rubbed it.
The fragment was found at Susa and belongs to the sixth or seventh century of our era, the last age of Sasanian rule before the Arab conquest of Iran. Birds, especially cranes, ducks and pheasants, were favourite subjects on Sasanian tableware and carried ideas of good fortune and abundance, motifs that would pass into Islamic and Byzantine art. The cup reached the Louvre through the division of finds from the French excavations at Susa and is shown here with a silver fork from the same period.
Did You Know? Oval cups of this shape were held lengthwise in the palm, so the crane would have faced the drinker each time the cup was raised.
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