CENTRAL ASIA, 10TH CENTURY

This impressive and finely potted bowl, has unusual but beautifully delineated decoration. With its coloured slips painted under a very thin glaze it relates to an example in the Khalili collection (Ernst J. Grube, Cobalt and Lustre, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. IX, London, 1994, no.36, pp.46 and 48). The drawing, and in particular the treatment of the background are very similar in both. A third related example was sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2006, lot 103. Although the colours in the Khalili example more closely resemble those of ours (the 2006 Christie's example also used an ochre slip not found on either the Khalili example or this one), the 2006 Christie's bowl was similar to ours in that the decoration there took the form of two confronted animals - again heavily stylized and with tails terminating in elegant palmettes.

A thermoluminescence test performed on by Oxford Authentication Ltd. confirms the proposed dating of this bowl (sample number N111b12).