IRAN, MID 17TH CENTURY

This elegant bottle is one of a series each decorated with a continuous scene - one side shows a hunter taking aim at a gambolling doe and the other side shows him returning to a young woman, carrying the doe on his shoulders. This sense of narrative is something very rare in ceramic pieces of the Safavid period. Another unusual feature is that the bottles seem to reveal the influence of contemporaneous arts of the book as opposed to the more habitual influence of Chinese porcelain. The only nod to the latter is the motif of veined leaves, which derives from Yuan porcelain. A similar but less precisely painted example is in the Louvre (inv.MAO 253, Istanbul, Isfahan, Delhi. 3 Capitals of Islamic Art. Masterpieces from the Louvre Collection, exhibition catalogue, 2008, no.105, p.232). For other examples see Yolande Crowe, Persia and China. Safavid Blue and White Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum 1501-1738, London, 2002, nos.231-234, pp.150-51).