KASHAN, IRAN, 12TH CENTURY

Dishes and bowls carved under a plain glaze were produced in a number of centres both in Iran and in Syria. The lightness of the body and the glaze on the present vessel make a Persian origin certain. It is however unusual in the restraint of its decoration, the smoothness of drawing in the central roundel, and in the fretted rim. The closest similarity to the central bird figure is seen in the well known lavender glazed dish formerly in the Eumorphopoulos and Barlow Collections and now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford 1938, pl.597). The unusual feature here is the plain surround which recalls the Syrian Lakabi wares. A possible direct influence from there is seen in the short panels of kufic calligraphy which are also found in almost identical form in some of the Syrian pieces (Pope, op.cit., pl.606).