DescriptionA carefully observed, naturalistic sculpture in the round, this vessel, like a slightly earlier dragon aquamanile (acc. no. 47.101.51) in the collection, was cast using the lost wax process. Surface details were then skillfully engraved in the cold metal. The ewer was filled through a covered hole hidden between the rows of tail feathers, and water was poured out through the bird's open beak. Although the cock is not without religious significance (most notably in the story of Saint Peter's denial of Jesus), it seems most likely that this aquamanile served a secular function. The cock was a popular character in such twelfth-century literature as the tale of Renart the Fox and is perhaps best known today from Chanticleer, the rooster in Chaucer's fourteenth century "The Nun's Priest's Tale."