Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.

This wonderful object is a Turkish bow-case. Made from black leather and elaborately decorated with fine silver wire emb...
02/09/2026

This wonderful object is a Turkish bow-case.

Made from black leather and elaborately decorated with fine silver wire embroidery. This case is for a composite bow, and would have been worn suspended from the archer’s belt.

🏹 Bow-case, 1600–1650. Leather, silver-wire embroidered, 66 x 30.5 cm. Turkey. AN1685.B.397

This beautiful object is a moon flask.Chinese moon flasks like this one are known as baoyueping 抱月瓶. Ping means flask or...
01/09/2026

This beautiful object is a moon flask.

Chinese moon flasks like this one are known as baoyueping 抱月瓶. Ping means flask or bottle and baoyue means ‘embracing the moon.

They feature a circular, moon-like body with a narrow neck and two small handles and are usually decorated in blue and white with symbolic flowers, dragons or Buddhist emblems. Making them required a great deal of skill as they were prone to leaning over during firing.

See it on display in Gallery 38, Level 2.

🌕 Blue-and-white moon flask or bianhu, 1403–1425. Porcelain, 29.5 x 20.5 x 12.5 cm. EA1997.190

A bouquet of roses, perfect for this Monday morning. This still life was painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.Towards the en...
31/08/2026

A bouquet of roses, perfect for this Monday morning.

This still life was painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Towards the end of his life, Renoir (1841–1919) painted a large number of still lifes of flowers. These included a series of roses in round bowls. They were painted quickly in oil on canvas, and show the artist making bold experiments with colour and tone, within the confines of a modest composition.

Renoir was one of the leading painters of the Impressionist group. He evolved a technique of broken brushstrokes and used bold combinations of pure complementary colours to capture the light and movement of his landscapes and figure subjects. Following a visit to Italy in 1881 his style changed, becoming more linear and classical.

🌹 Still Life of Roses in a Vase, c. 1909–1919, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919). Oil on canvas, 29 x 37 cm. WA1988.289

This beautiful woodcut print is Evening Glow at Seta by master Japanese printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige.It comes from a ser...
30/08/2026

This beautiful woodcut print is Evening Glow at Seta by master Japanese printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige.

It comes from a series called Eight Views of Ōmi which celebrates Ōmi province (modern Shiga prefecture) in both poetry and art. Hiroshige was a prolific artist; he is thought to have created between 4,000 and 5,000 print designs during a career that lasted almost 50 years.

Although Hiroshige produced a wide range of prints, including designs of beautiful women, kabuki actors, famous historical and mythological figures and bird-and-flower studies, he is most famous for his landscape prints which capture brilliantly the effects of season, weather and time of day.

🛶 Detail from Evening Glow at Seta, 1857, Utagawa Hiroshige, (1797–1858). Colour woodcut, 34 x 22.6 cm. EAX.4745

Let's take a closer look at this delightful little owl sketched by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and beautifu...
28/08/2026

Let's take a closer look at this delightful little owl sketched by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and beautifully animated by in our latest video.

This owl appeared in a letter Edward Burne-Jones wrote and illustrated in the late 1800s.

✏️ An owl on a branch, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898), 1893 - 1898. WA2015.68.29

28/08/2026

Twit-Twoo 😍

Animator and illustrator brings this characterful owl, sketched by Edward Burne-Jones, to life.

Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, was born on this day in 1833. This little owl appeared in a letter he wrote and illustrated in the late 1800s.

This charming animation is from a series created by talented student illustrators and animators from universities across the UK. Their inspiring works respond to the artworks and objects in the Museum’s collection.

✏️ An owl on a branch, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833 - 1898), 1893 - 1898. WA2015.68.29

This “skidding goat” vase was likely made in Iran c.3500 BCE. Similar jars were made at settlements in mountain valleys ...
27/08/2026

This “skidding goat” vase was likely made in Iran c.3500 BCE. Similar jars were made at settlements in mountain valleys that connected Mesopotamia in the west to Iran.

This goat, or ibex, is native to the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and may have been an important symbol for the people of this region. Mountain goats often appear on objects like this one.

Perhaps the design of lines and shapes seen across this vase represent mountain peaks surrounding our little skidding goat.

This type of painted pottery decoration was extremely sophisticated and vessels like this may have been used for special occasions.

You can see this vase on display in Galley 19, Level G.

🐐Vase with 'skidding goat' motif, c.3500 BCE. h 12.5 cm. AN1971.980

Are you ready for some paws-itvely lovely content?To celebrate International Dog Day, we want to give a round of a-paws ...
26/08/2026

Are you ready for some paws-itvely lovely content?

To celebrate International Dog Day, we want to give a round of a-paws to the dogs in our collection.

🐕 Dog from sitting on a table, 1874, Richard Samuel Chattock (1825–1906). Etching print, 7.5 x 7.4 cm. WA1995.58.1

🐕 Detail from Dog beneath bamboo, 1931, Qizong Zhang (c.1931). Ink and colour on silk, 81.28 x 40.64 cm. EA1967.13

🐕 Mycenaean dog's head rhyton, decorated with painted chevrons, c. 1300-1200 BCE. Ceramic, 16.8 cm (length). AN1896-1908.AE.298

🐕 Greenware burial figure of a dog, c. 250–300 CE. Stoneware with green glaze, 4 x 7.7 x 4.2 cm. EA1956.370

🐕 Attic red-figure stemless pottery cup depicting a hound, 510–500 BCE. Pottery, 19cm (diameter). AN1966.447

🐕 A Dog lying on a ledge, c. 1630–1720. Oil on canvas, 49 x 62.5 cm. WA1957.59.2

This intricate vase was created by Namikawa Yasuyuki, perhaps one of the most celebrated enamellers of the Meiji period ...
25/08/2026

This intricate vase was created by Namikawa Yasuyuki, perhaps one of the most celebrated enamellers of the Meiji period (1868-1912).

The detail across this vase was created using cloisonné enamelling in which fine wires or ‘cloisons’ are attached to a metal body and coloured glass pastes are applied between the wires.

The object is then fired at around 800-900 degrees until the pastes melt and fuse. After this process is repeated several times, it is then polished to give a smooth surface.

Yasuyuki’s great skill lay in the way he sculpted the wires into different shapes and widths, so that they became an important part of the picture in themselves.

You can find this vase on display in Gallery 36, Level 2.

🌊Vase with waterfall over rocks, Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845–1927), c. 1910–1915. EA2002.177

This attentive steed was made in China’s Henan province over a thousand years ago. It was used as a funerary object, and...
23/08/2026

This attentive steed was made in China’s Henan province over a thousand years ago. It was used as a funerary object, and was likely buried in a tomb.

See this object on display in Gallery 10 on the Ground Floor.

🐴 Earthenware horse with saddle, 701–750 CE, Henan province, China. Earthenware, with sancai glaze. EAX.3960

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