A MINA'I POTTERY DISH

Details

A MINA'I POTTERY DISH
PERSIA, CIRCA 1200

With flat base and vertical sides rising to a T-section rim, the sides applied with four feet in the form of harpies, the white interior decorated in enamels with the central figure of an enthroned king flanked by two courtiers, confronted birds above and confronted harpies below, in a band of polychrome triangular motifs, the blue rim with white rope-pattern, the exterior with a band of stylised repeated lavender kufic, the feet the same colour, the underside with a radiating quatrefoil (repaired, small areas of restoration) in fitted case
5 5/8in. (14.3cm.) diam.

Provenance

Jacques Donat Collection, Paris, sold Galerie Georges Petit, 6 June 1912, lot 32
With Mme Fanny-Brun, Lyon, 1955, sold to
Madame d'Antona, Siena

Lot Essay

It is rare to find a piece of pottery decorated in the Mina'i enamelled technique of the present form, derived so closely from metalwork. A good bronze example has been published by A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries, p. 158, catalogue number 66. Examples in pottery (other than mina'i) have been published in Féhérvari, Géza; Islamic Pottery: A Comprehensive Study based on the Barlow Collection, London, 1973, catalogue number 78, pl 34b; Lane, A.:Early Islamic Pottery, pl 95b.

More from Islamic

View All