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Lot Essay
INSCRIPTIONS:
Repeated, aateg 'be pious'
Samanid potters can be credited with the invention and perfection of slip-painted pottery – in which the clarity of design was achieved by painting brownish pigment mixed with slip on a white engobe painted over the red earthenware. In his discussion on Samanid poetry Ernst Grube writes that epigraphic pieces, such as the present lot, have beauty in their simplicity and an energy often lacking in the ceramics of later centuries. He goes on to write that ‘perhaps in no other form of early Islamic art … has the beauty of Arabic writing been made use of so successfully’ (Islamic Pottery in the Eigth to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976, p. 94).
The band of inscription on our bowl is the same as one on a jug in the al-Sabah Collection (LNS 1087 C; published Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, Cat. Ga.14.5, p. 216). The jug, which was sold in these Rooms, 16 October 2001, lot 230, is also decorated with a band of strapwork below the inscription of the type on the inside of the inscription band of our bowl. The style of the inscription on our bowl and the al-Sabah jug links to a group of elegant dishes, one of which is in the Khalili Collection (Ernst Grube, Cobalt and Lustre, London, 1992, no. 68, p. 79). The entry under that example notes two further related pieces published by Bol'shakov ("Arabskie nadpisi na polivnoi keramike Srednei Asii", Epigrafika Vostoka, 13, 1958, pp.32-58). A further dish from the group was offered in these Rooms 1 May 2001, lot 275.
Repeated, aateg 'be pious'
Samanid potters can be credited with the invention and perfection of slip-painted pottery – in which the clarity of design was achieved by painting brownish pigment mixed with slip on a white engobe painted over the red earthenware. In his discussion on Samanid poetry Ernst Grube writes that epigraphic pieces, such as the present lot, have beauty in their simplicity and an energy often lacking in the ceramics of later centuries. He goes on to write that ‘perhaps in no other form of early Islamic art … has the beauty of Arabic writing been made use of so successfully’ (Islamic Pottery in the Eigth to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976, p. 94).
The band of inscription on our bowl is the same as one on a jug in the al-Sabah Collection (LNS 1087 C; published Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, Cat. Ga.14.5, p. 216). The jug, which was sold in these Rooms, 16 October 2001, lot 230, is also decorated with a band of strapwork below the inscription of the type on the inside of the inscription band of our bowl. The style of the inscription on our bowl and the al-Sabah jug links to a group of elegant dishes, one of which is in the Khalili Collection (Ernst Grube, Cobalt and Lustre, London, 1992, no. 68, p. 79). The entry under that example notes two further related pieces published by Bol'shakov ("Arabskie nadpisi na polivnoi keramike Srednei Asii", Epigrafika Vostoka, 13, 1958, pp.32-58). A further dish from the group was offered in these Rooms 1 May 2001, lot 275.