Wit and Wine: A New Look at Ancient Iranian Ceramics

Vessel with Two Feet
early first millennium B.C.E.
Northern Iran
Ceramic

Wit and Wine: A New Look at Ancient Iranian Ceramics featured forty five extraordinary pieces that illustrate the 5,000-year ceramic tradition that flourished in ancient, pre-Islamic Iran until 100 BCE.

Curated by Trudy S. Kawami, Ph.D., Director of Research for the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Wit and Wine was the first major exhibition of ancient Iranian ceramics in over a decade. The beautiful, technically sophisticated, and often-amusing ceramics of ancient Iran demonstrate a rich yet little known tradition comparable to pre-Columbian, Chinese, and Greek achievements.

The exhibition was organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York. Arthur M. Sackler, M.D. (1913–1987), a research psychiatrist, medical publisher, connoisseur and collector of art, established the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation in 1965 to make his extensive art collections accessible to the public. The Foundation collection has more than 900 works of art including Chinese ritual bronzes and ceramics, Buddhist stone sculpture and the renowned Chu Silk Manuscript, the oldest existing Chinese written document.

Twin-spouted Vessel
250-100 B.C.E.
Height - 13.125 inches
The handles are shaped like mountain goats. The twin spouts are at the bottom of the vessel, so the server had to use a finger of each hand to cover the spout and release it when pouring.

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