Harvard Art Museums > 2002.50.65: Beehive Cover Vessels Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Beehive Cover , 2002.50.65,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 20, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/165415. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2002.50.65 Title Beehive Cover Classification Vessels Work Type cover Date 19th-20th century Places Creation Place: Middle East, Iran Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/165415 Physical Descriptions Medium Reddish earthenware covered in white slip and painted with brownish black (chromium, iron, and manganese) and blue (cobalt) under clear alkali glaze Technique Underglazed, painted Dimensions 21 cm (8 1/4 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (by 1978-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art Accession Year 2002 Object Number 2002.50.65 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description This ceramic disk was used to cover one end of a beehive; its round hole admitted bees to a cylinder made of mud and reeds or cane, which was laid horizontally in a stack with other hives to protect them from winter weather. Such beehive covers have been used in Iran at least since the early eighteenth century. Talismanic designs or inscriptions, thought to aid the art of beekeeping, decorated these disks. This example features two long-necked birds, perhaps peacocks, facing each other. Their bodies are crosshatched, and flowering plants appear to sprout from their elaborate tails. Repeating floral motifs surround the birds, and the segment below them, containing the hole, is decorated to suggest a pool of water. Light cobalt is casually applied in the empty white areas and around the periphery. The beehive cover is intact except for chipped edges. Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 201351 Beehive cover Iran, 19th or 20th century Reddish earthenware covered in white slip and painted with brownish black (chromium, iron, and manganese) and blue (cobalt) under clear alkali glaze 21 cm (8 1/4 in.) 2002.50.65 This ceramic disk was used to cover one end of a beehive; its round hole admitted bees to a cylinder made of mud and reeds or cane, which was laid horizontally in a stack with other hives to protect them from winter weather.[1] Such beehive covers have been used in Iran at least since the early eighteenth century.[2] Talismanic designs or inscriptions, thought to aid the art of beekeeping, decorated these disks.[3] This example features two long-necked birds, perhaps peacocks, facing each other. Their bodies are crosshatched, and flowering plants appear to sprout from their elaborate tails. Repeating floral motifs surround the birds, and the segment below them, containing the hole, is decorated to suggest a pool of water.4 Light cobalt is casually applied in the empty white areas and around the periphery. The beehive cover is intact except for chipped edges. Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım [1] See Savage-Smith 1997. [2] Cort et al. 2000, 68, 70. [3] Savage-Smith 1997, figs. 204–6. [4] For a similarly decorated beehive cover dated to circa 1950, see Gluck 1977, 84. Publication History Jessica Chloros, "An Investigation of Cobalt Pigment on Islamic Ceramics at the Harvard Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2008), Unpublished, pp. 1-41 passim Mary McWilliams, ed., In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2013), p. 203, cat. 51, ill. Exhibition History In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2013 - 06/01/2013 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
