Oil lamp with flattened globular body on a cylindrical splayed foot, long open spout terminating in a flat and pointed rim; rectangular handle with a ring on its top, capped by a large lotus bud and hinged domed lid with small pomegranate knob. The sides are decorated with a large palmette design in low relief.  Made of high tin bronze alloy such lamps were cast in separate pieces then soldered together. This alloy (also called quarternary bronze, an alloy of copper and about 20% tin), was known in early Islamic times as 'white copper' and was used for the production of bowls, stemed bowls, dishes, ewers and candlesticks. One of the particular properties of high tin bronze is that it can be red-hot forged, like iron, and if quenched, it becomes reasonably malleable. If though left to cool slowly and then hammered, it shatters. There were three centres of quarternary bronze manufacture as recorded in Islamic texts of the 10 th-11th century: Rabinjian near Bukhara, Hamadan in north-western Persia and the Sistan province in eastern Persia. Iran or Central Asia, 12th – 13th century. (LO.1029)