Among the most sumptuous pieces are a sardonyx (a type of onyx) and gold ewer, the gold St. Michael's Cup (both at the Kunsthistorisches Museum), and a sardonyx-covered cup in the Louvre, all of which display northern features.
The shapes most often employed were the albarello, or drug jar, of Middle East origin; a type of ewer evidently derived from the Greek oinochoe; and, above all, the piatta da pompa, or show dish, in the istoriato, an Italian narrative style from the early 16th century that uses the pottery body solely as support for a purely pictorial effect.
The decoration on the ewer that went with it was modelled on Briot's Mars Dish and on a piece known as the Suzannah Dish, which is also attributed to Briot.
Among the best known works attributed to him are a bronze aquamanile (ewer) reliquary of St. Alexander (c. 1145) and two enamel plaques showing the baptism of Christ and the Crucifixion.
In the initiation of Buddhist monks, the tonsure (cutting the hair of the head) is performed with a razor with a handle, and each initiate receives three red or yellow garments, a belt, a bowl for alms (patra), a filter or ewer (kundika), an alms collector's staff (khakkara), a needle, a toothpick, and a fan.
A further example of his rich Rococo decoration is a ewer (1741) with a handle in the form of the figure of a triton.
The "modern" poets, sensitive to colours, sounds, and shapes, were also fond of writing short poems on unlikely subjects: a well-bred hunting dog or an inkpot; delicious sweetmeats or jaundice; the ascetic who constantly weeps when he remembers his sins; the luxurious garden parties of the rich; an elegy for a cat; or a description of a green ewer.
They are known as aquamaniles, a type of ewer used for pouring water for washing one's hands.
A porcelain ewer has the seal of Portugal painted across its bulbous body in mild blue brushstrokes — except the seal is upside down.
Don't miss the Yongle-era Ming-dynasty ceramics: the white-glazed ewer and vase with barely perceptible incised patterns of flowers are marvels of elegance and restraint.
A ewer from Arab Spain in the shape of a peacock carries an Arabic signature identifying it as "the work of the Christian King's slave".
