IRAN, EARLY 13TH CENTURY

Details

A KASHAN LUSTRE POTTERY DISH
IRAN, EARLY 13TH CENTURY
The central roundel with a pair of birds against a scrolling ground, the cavetto with a band of white naskh against a lustre ground with a series of cartouches containing arabesques or dots beyond, the rim with white naskh against a dark lustre ground
12 3/8in. (31.3cm.) diam.

Provenance

Excavated Awdan Tepe, Gurgan, 1946-7

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice. The USA prohibits the purchase by US persons of Iranian-origin “works of conventional craftsmanship” such as carpets, textiles, decorative objects, and scientific instruments. The US sanctions apply to US persons regardless of the location of the transaction or the shipping intentions of the US person. For this reason, Christie’s will not accept bids by US persons on this lot. Non-US persons wishing to import this lot into the USA are advised that they will need to apply for an OFAC licence and that this can take many months to be granted.

Brought to you by

Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam Head of Sale

batighi@christies.com +44 20 7389 2509

Lot Essay

Inscriptions:
Around the inside of the rim part of a Persian benedictory quatrain: ‘May your wealth and glory always increase, May your prosperity surpass all limits, So whatever reaches your palate from this bowl …” [For the full poem, see Oya Pancaroğlu, Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, New Haven, 2007, p. 143.];
Also are repeats of part of a Persian benedictory couplet: “Protect [O Creator of the World], the owner [of this bowl, wherever he may be]”

Excerpts from the same verses are found around the interior of the base.

Two similar confronted birds on a ground of tight scrolls are also found on a bowl, dated to AH 614/1217 AD, formerly in the collection of Clement N. Ades and now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (C160-1977; Dr. Mehdi Bahrami¸ Gurgan Faiences, Cairo, 1949, pl.LI).

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