A LARGE SPHERO-CONICAL POTTERY VESSEL Possibly Egypt, 10th - 11th century

A LARGE SPHERO-CONICAL POTTERY VESSEL
Possibly Egypt, 10th - 11th century
Of typical shape with a tall smooth neck with no groove, the unglazed earthenware body incised with deep lines and fish scale pattern, 12cm high.
Oliver Watson dedicated a whole section of his Unglazed Wares chapter to this type of sphero-conical vessels. Their use, which is still debated today, remains the most intriguing feature. Several scholars suggested different possibilities from hand-grenades to perfume flasks, from fire-blowers to mercury bottles, from tobacco pipes to beer flasks. Watson is not inclined to believe they were used as grenades or hand-thrown bombs, but instead supports the hypothesis they might have been used as aeolipiles, which filled with water were placed in a fire with the resulting jet of steam acting like bellows to increase the temperature (O. Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, Thames and Hudson and The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait National Museum, 2004, pp. 128 - 131).
Estimated at £400 - £600