The collection represents the most complete groupings of practically all kind of bronze and brass items found in Khurasan and Mawarannahr/Transoxiana from the 9th to the beginning of 13th centuries. Honorary Senator Manfred Bumiller began collecting Islamic art in 1980.
There are dozens of miniature containers in the Bumiller Collection, which were used by medieval women to store and apply cosmetics. One such vessel, used most probably to color the eyebrows, is a perfect match with an item found accidentally on the ground at Budrach. Both have a handle shaped like a palmette and figured bosses on the sides; their surfaces are ornamented with circles with recesses or dots in the middle.
Whereas the object from the Bumiller Collection shows decoration in relief, i.e., cut from the mold in which it was cast, the pattern on the Budrach piece was executed by carving after casting. Vessels of this shape were used as follows.
Usma (woad, Isatis tinctoria) is an herbaceous plant whose juice is used by women in Uzbekistan to this day to color their eyebrows. After the leaves are cut and slightly dried, they are crushed and the juice squeezed out into a shallow container (for instance the bottom of an upended tea bowl is often used). Then women and girls take thin sticks with lumps of cotton wool twisted onto the ends, dip them in the liquid and paint their eyebrows, often connecting them in a line over the nose bridge. When it has dried and darkened, the juice makes the eyebrows almost black, giving women of the East an irresistible allure.
Besides being a cosmetic, the usma juice is believed to make the eyebrows thicker and help them grow.
In our opinion the shape of the cosmetic vessel that has been published perfectly fits the use it was made for: usma juice was squeezed out into its small basin, while sticks to paint the eyebrows were inserted into the long, spout-like nose.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Collections of the Federal Republic of Germany" (volume XI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.