Museum, Nevers 17th Cty Ewer Religious Headress Shape, Historiated Thema "legend Of Queen Tomyris"

MUSEUM piece
Stunning large Nevers factory ewer on pedestal around 1660 with religious women coif shape for its funny rim pass, typical for its period. This shape is also directly borrowed from silverware models from the early Louis XIV era and Italian majolica.
The finely twisted handle and the relief collar with eventful rim, give great elegance and lightness to this large ceremonial piece.

"Grand feu" (only one cooking for enemail and decoration, and limited color gamut) decoration in shades of blue -the drawing is discreetly delimited by fine manganese nets, on a bluish background -linked to a significant tin content in the composition of the enamel,
an historiated thema: the legend of Queen Tomyris having asked her soldiers to bring back the head of the defeated perisan Emperor Cyrus the Great to throw it into "a bottle of human blood"

Tomyris -also called Thomyris,  was an East-Iranian Queen who reigned over the Massagetae, an Iranian Saka people of Central Asia Tomyris led her armies to defend against an attack by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire, and, according to Herodotus, defeated and killed him in 530 BC.
Tomyris was the widowed wife of the king of the Massagetae, whom she succeeded as the queen of the tribe after he died

War with Persia
When the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus, asked for the hand of Tomyris with the intent of acquiring her kingdom through the marriage, she understood Cyrus's aims and rejected his proposal. On the advice of the Lydian Croesus, Cyrus responded to Tomyris's rejection by deciding to invade the Massagetae
When Cyrus started building a bridge on the Araxes river with the intent of attacking the Massagetae, Tomyris advised him to remain satisfied with ruling his own kingdom and to allow her to rule her kingdom. Cyrus's initial assault was routed by the Massagetae, after which he set up a fancy banquet with large amounts of wine in the tents of his camp as an ambush and withdrew
Death of Spargapises
The Massagetae, led by Tomyris's son and the commander of their army, Spargapises, who primarily used fermented mare's milk and cannabis as intoxicants like all Iron Age steppe nomads, and therefore were not used to drinking wine, became drunk and were easily defeated and slaughtered by Cyrus, thus destroying a third of the Massagetaean army. Spargapises had been captured by Cyrus, and, once he had become sober and understood his situation, he asked Cyrus to free him, and after Cyrus acquiesced to his pleas, he killed himself
After Tomyris found out about the death of Spargapises, she sent Cyrus an angry message in which she called the wine, which had caused the destruction of her army and her son, a drug which made those who consumed it so mad that they spoke evil words, and demanded him to leave his land or else she would, swearing upon the Sun, "give him more blood than he could drink.
Death of Cyrus
Tomyris herself led the Massagetaean army into war, and, during the next battle opposing the Massagetae to the forces of Cyrus, Tomyris defeated the Persians and destroyed most of their army. Cyrus himself was killed in the battle, and Tomyris found his corpse, severed his head and shoved it in a bag filled with blood while telling Cyrus, "Drink your fill of blood!"

*A conquering Massagetae rider, in armor and riding a prancing horse, with a quiver on his back, brandishe a bow and arrow. He is accompanied by another helmeted soldier, pedestrian, carrying shield and sword, holding before him persian emperor Cyrus decapitated head asked by their Queen Thomyris . 

*On the other side of the ewer, queen Tomyris amazon; It is preceded by a musical accompanist carrying a large trunk.

The 2 parts of the historiated decoration are separated by a relief important central cabochon bearing a bipartite coat of arms, separated vertically, with on the left a large mythological bird with outstretched wings (eagle ?) and on the right 2 large superimposed fleurs-de-lis, on a background filled with horizontal manganese stripes. It does not seem to me to be a fancy and decorative coat of arms (?)

The large size of this ewer (we find often examples of ewers of this shape around 15cm height; please check the photo with an another piece of similar shape from my collection, with a Chinese decoration) combined with the very fine and detailed drawing of its rare historiated thema makes this piece a truly exceptional and stunning model, that could easily be compared to the best pieces from specialized museums collections.

Sizes: 35cm high, 15cm (without handle) and 23cm (with handle and collar) diameters
Decorator brand "D / 3" under cover under the heel of the ewer, certainly specifying the initial of the decorator or referring to the shape of this model and its numbered size.

Very good condition, without fel, breakage or restoration. Note only a very small ginning at the edge of the pedestal, easily restoreable. Very nice enamel and shiny ceramic cover, without use.

All my thanks to one of my customers, lover of earthenware and collector, having very usefully informed me about this historiated decoration that I had not been able to identify !