CENTRAL IRAN, LATE 12TH CENTURY

As with lustre ware, the production of mina’i was an expensive and labour-intensive process requiring each item to have two or even three firings. Mina’i allowed potters to depict highly narrative scenes in a way that was not possible previously and there is a close relationship between these wares and contemporary manuscript painting. Particularly popular were scenes from the Shahnama as seen on a group of wares signed by the potter Abu Zaid (Oliver Watson, "Documentary Mina'i and Abu Zaid's Bowls", in R. Hillenbrand (ed.), The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia, pp.170-180). Whilst the scene of the present bowl is unidentified, a hero slaying a dragon could relate to several stories from the Shahnama. Whilst depictions of horseriders were popularly used for mina'i bowls, a rider slaying a dragon is far rarer. Our bowl relates very closely to another depicting a rider slaying a dragon in the Sarikhani collection (published Oliver Watson, Ceramics of Iran, Islamic Pottery from the Sarikhani Collection, London, 2020, pp.260-61, no. 129). Like the Sarikhani bowl, the scale of the drawing of the present bowl is particularly impressive, with the horseman filling much of the interior surface and a band of kufic around the inside of the rim. A bowl with similar sized drawing was sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2009, lot 36 and another mina’i bowl depicting a scene from Layla and Majnun was sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2023, lot 13.