Beehive cover

Object Details

• Description

  Round, almost flat earthenware beehive cover, with a molded relief of a mosque on the top under a thick blue-green glaze. Glazed mainly on the top, but splashes of glaze are found on the sides and underneath. Large, oval finger hole on one side.

• Label

  Among some of the more unusual ceramic objects from Islamic Iran are beehive covers, some of which date back to at least the seventeenth century. Beekeeping was widely practiced throughout the Islamic world and because bees are singled out in the Qur'an, Islam's holy text, they enjoy particular status among other animals and insects. The designs on the two covers on view are intended as protective and auspicious symbols and are characteristic of the more vernacular ceramic tradition that has existed in the Islamic Near East for centuries.

• Provenance

  ?-2005

  Mr. and Mrs. Osborne (1914-2004) and Gratia Hauge (d. 2000) [1]

  From 2005

  The National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, by gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge, and Victor and Takako Hauge [2]

  Notes:

  [1] The Hauge family began collecting Asian paintings, sculpture, and ceramics in the late 1940s and would amass a large collection in the post-World War II years.

  [2] Ownership of collected objects sometimes changed between members of the Hauge families. See Deed of Gift, dated October 16, 2005, copy in object file. From 2005-2023 the work was part of the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection and on March 21, 2023, the work was internally transferred to the National Museum of Asian Art Collection.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Sky Blue: Color in Ceramics of the Islamic World (Saturday, July 16, 2016 - Sunday, April 02, 2017)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mr. and Mrs. Osborne and Gratia Hauge ((1914-2004) and (1907-2000))

• Origin

  Iran

• Credit Line

  Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge

• Type

  Tool and Equipment

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1930s, 1870s

• Name

  Hauge, Osborne and Gratia

• Topic

  Mosques, Art, Hauge collection, Qajar period (1779 - 1925), Arts of the Islamic World, Stone-paste, Ceramics, Bees

• Culture

  Muslims, Iranians

• Object Type

  Tools and equipment