Tombak, copper gilded by means of mercury amalgamation, was highly prized in the Ottoman Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its brilliant golden lustre made it possible to produce sumptuous ceremonial objects at relatively low cost. The technique was used notably for hammam bowls, ewers and other objects intended for display. Examples embellished with enamelled floral cabochons, such as the present piece, represent a particularly refined variant.

Identical enamelled cabochons with floral motifs appear on a tombak ewer sold at Christie’s, London, in Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 7 October 2008, lot 439. Several comparable examples are illustrated in Nihat Takdemir and Derya Önder, Tombak: altindan süzülen zarafet – Golden grace: tombac (2018), particularly cat. nos. 75 and 76, p. 157.