Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

This is an example of naskhi script. This style of Islamic calligraphy is commonly used in transcribing administrative texts or books. Its rounded edges made it more easily legible.

🔦 Cup with naskhi inscription, 12th century. EA1978.2225

A stone-coloured glazed cup with naskhi around the outside

A stone-coloured glazed cup with nashki around the outside with light shining through illuminating the writing.

See how this cup completely transforms with light 👉️👉️

This cup was produced in Iran during the 12th century. It is made from fritware and decorated with a colourless glaze.

‘Glory, prosperity and fortune to its owners' reads the inscription which appears across the cup.

A page with drawn studies of eyes and heads

On the other side of the paper, there are studies of eyes, profiles, and locks of hair.

🐉 Dragon and other sketches, 1524–1525, by Michelangelo (1475–1564). Pen, brown ink, black chalk, red chalk and white paper. WA1846.69

A pen and ink drawing of a dragon by Michelangelo

Here, Michelangelo drew in pen and ink to shape a winged, fire-breathing dragon. If you look closely, you can see two drawings of faces below the final sketch – these were drawn by a student of Michelangelo's before they were abandoned and drawn over by the artist.

A pen and ink drawing of a dragon by Michelangelo

Michelangelo was born on this day in 1475 in Caprese near Florence, Italy. The painter, sculptor, architect and poet is widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance period.

Happy World Book Day!

What is your favourite book?

Here we share a delicate embroidered book cover - the perfect accessory for any book lover in the 17th century.

This cover was made in England in 1632 and originally contained the third part of the bible.

🪡 WA2010.19

Ren Xiong was a versatile artist who excelled in the combination of the traditional and the popular with which the Shanghai School, in which he was active, is associated.

🌸 Blue bird sitting on a plum blossom tree, 1820–1857, Ren Xiong (1820–1857). Ink and colour on paper. EA1995.236.l

The Chinese plum, “mei”, blooms in late winter and is traditionally considered to be the herald of spring. The colourful bird also indicates the approach of warmer weather.

A Japanese colour woodblock print of a blue bird nestled in a Plum blossom tree that is beginning to bloom with pink flowers.

This cheerful piece is by Chinese artist, Ren Xiong.

The small blue bird and the pinkish-reds of the plum blossom contrast vividly with the various shades of black ink that are used with great effect by the artist to render the tree.

A small green seal with a quadruped carved into it.

A large Ancient Greek jar with an large black octopus on the side

A coin with a bee decoration on one side

🦞 Round tsuba with design of lobster, 1821–1887, Mitsubumi Goto (1821–1887) EA1997.102
🐕 Oval bezel seal with nasta‘liq inscription, floral decoration, and a quadruped, 1855–1856. EAX.3458
🐙 Jar with octopus motif, c. 1450–1400 BCE. AN1911.608
🐝 Ancient coin, 650 BCE–297 CE. HCR5273

A ceramic dish with part of the decoration missing. The remaining portion has a stylised hare in colours of black, green and red

A ceramic tile with two goats painted on, one is standing looking towards the viewer, one is laid down looking to the right

A small gold coloured metal bat with it's wings raised above its head.

A black tuba with gold lobster decoration

Happy #WorldWildlifeDay! Do you have a favourite animal or wildlife scene in the Ashmolean?

Scroll ➡️ to see just a few of them.

🐇 Dish with hare, 901–1100 CE. EA1978.2161
🐐 Tile with standing goat and one recumbent, 1750–1775. WA2012.1.337
🦇 Ojime in the form of a bat, 1871–1900. EA1956.3749

While the practice is most commonly associated with Japanese craftsmanship, it was also used in Korea, China and Vietnam.

💛 Bowl, 1501 - 1600. Ceramic with gold repair, 10.8 cm height. Vietnam. EA1968.9

Kintsugi literally means ‘joining together with gold’. The philosophy behind this practice is that breakage and repair are important parts of an object's story, rather than something to be hidden.

A small ceramic white bowl with faded black decoration with gold kintsugi repairs

This bowl is an example of the Japanese practice of kintsugi - a method of repairing broken ceramics using lacquer mixed with powdered gold.

See them on display in Gallery 17, level G.

🥄Penbryn Spoons, 50 BCE–100 CE ; Late Iron Age (Britain) (c. 100 BCE–43 CE), Castell Nadolig hillfort (find spot). Copper alloy, gold. AN1836.p147.508

They are extremely rare with only ten pairs known from Britain.

Wide and shallow, with short decorated handles, they are thought to have been used for divining (telling the future), with liquid dripped from the spoon with the hole onto the other spoon with divided decoration.

Two ancient copper spoons with decoration on the handles

In honour of #StDavidsDay here are the wonderful Penbryn Spoons, which were found in 1829 beneath a heap of stones inside the Castell Nadolig hillfort, near Penbryn in Ceredigion, Wales. The pair of cast bronze ‘spoons’ date to the Late Iron Age (c. 50 BCE–100 CE).

Here, Ruskin has captured the apse of Pisa's cathedral. In 1873, he said this building that ‘no architecture on this grand scale, so delicately skilful in execution, or so daintily disposed in proportion, exists elsewhere in the world’.

🖌️ WA.RS.REF.076

A watercolour of the tower of Pisa. It has details of part of the building with the rest suggested. The artist has used blues, stone and reds.

John Ruskin had a lifelong interest in architecture. Some of his first articles were published in The Architectural Magazine, 1837–8, and his book The Stones of Venice (1851–3) was arguably his most influential work.

An oil painting by Renoir, it has loose strokes of light colours such as blue, green, pinks and yellows. It shows figures walking through a garden with trees.

An oil painting by Renoir, it has loose strokes of light colours such as blue, green, pinks and yellows. It shows figures walking through a garden with trees.

The French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on this day in 1841 in Limoges, France.

Renoir lived in Montmartre between 1890 and 1896. This painting shows the garden of the Château des Brouillards, originally built as a country residence in the 1700s.

☀️ WA1940.1.4

A Japanese fuchi which is black in colour and textured. It is decorated with two hatched chicks, one black, one gold

On this example there is a chicken with two unhatched eggs on one side, and two newly-hatched chicks on the other.

🐓 Regular fuchi with a chicken and eggs, 1600–1868. Japan. 1.2 X 3.7 X 2.5 cm. EA1956.2701

A Japanese fuchi which is black in colour and textured. It is decorated with a black, gold and red chicken with two unhatched gold eggs

This delightful object is a fuchi from the Edo period (1600–1868).

A fuchi is a hilt collar between the handle and hand guard on a Japanese sword. They can be both decorative and practical.

Sgraffito (‘scratched’) is a decorating technique for pottery. Layers of coloured slips and glazes are applied to the clay, letting them dry before scratching motifs and patterns into the layers and firing.

See it on display in Gallery 34, Level 1

❤️ AN1978.732

The inside of a ceramic cup with is decorated with a couple, most likely newlyweds. The glaze colours are green, orange and stone

This Sgraffito ware wedding bowl from Cyprus depicts a man with a sword and a woman arm in arm. They are probably a newly-married couple, who drank together from such a bowl at their wedding ceremony to seal their vows.

A gilt-brass clock in the shape of a book. It is intricately etched with a floral design and one large clock dial on the front.

A gilt-brass clock in the shape of a book. In this picture it is open to reveal three different time dials.

Open up this incredible gilt-brass 'book' and you'll find...

A clock-watch, complete with a lunar wheel-chart, sundials, and even an alarm. All this and it measures just 10cm tall!

You can see this object in Gallery 55 on the 2nd floor.

⏰ WA1947.191.7

He is probably best known for his prints of warriors and battles of legendary heroes, but also created designs of ghosts, cats, beautiful women, actor prints and landscapes.

🌝 EA1971.87

They glance back at their torch-wielding pursuers, likely Lady Nijō's brothers. The print is inspired by a famous episode from the 10th-century poetic anthology the 'Tales of Ise'.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock printing.

A Japanese woodblock print featuring a couple of lovers running from a three people carrying flaming torches. The figures are all dressed in traditional Japanese robes.

A Japanese woodblock print featuring a couple of lovers running from a three people carrying flaming torches. The figures are all dressed in traditional Japanese robes.

This striking colour woodblock print shows the lovers Ariwara no Narihara and Lady Nijō eloping by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

The couple flee across the Musashi Plain, famous for its moonrise, and here a giant moon is shown rising behind the moor against a soft blue sky.

A round gold and enamel pendant featuring a green lion with a red tongue.

A round gold and enamel pendant featuring a blue and red flower.

This beautiful pendant dates from 801–1000 CE and measures just 2.6cm in diameter.

It is made from gold and decorated with cloisonné enamel on both sides. On one side there is a lion with a green body and a protruding red tongue, on the other side is a delicate flower decoration.

AN1896-1908.M.190

This format became popular once mechanical printing came to be adopted in the Islamic world.

📷️ Miniature Qur’an, 1889–1890. EA1992.42