PROBABLY CENTRAL ASIA, 9TH/10TH CENTURY

This is a most unusual bowl. Its potting is relatively heavy for the size and the exterior is left completely undecorated. Yet the figure on the interior is drawn with a clarity and assurance that is frequently missing on early lustre pottery. It does not seem to relate closely in style or technique to Abbasid bowls attributed to Iraq, and certainly not to those from Egypt. The strong drawing is closer to the delineation found on Nishapur and Central Asian pots, a number of which depict human figures, but not quite in this technique. The strongest stylistic indications are the small floral designs. The rosette under the raised elbow is very similar to those on "Sari" wares, and are also found on slip painted wares from Samarkand and Nishapur. And there is certainly a similarity of the small floral sprays on each side of the figure to those on an imitation lustre bowl in the Khalili Collection that attributed to Nishapur (Ernst J. Grube, Cobalt and Lustre, London, 1994, no.46, p.63). Again this reinforces an attribution to North East Iran or Central Asia.