A LARGE "POST-SASANIAN" BLUE-GLAZED POTTERY STORAGE JAR

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PROPERTY FROM THE BEQUEST OF ADRIENNE MINASSIAN, SOLD TO BENEFIT BROWN UNIVERSITY'S MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES LOTS 723-788 Adrienne Minassian (1913-1994) was the daughter of Kirkor Minassian (1874-1944), one of the great collectors of Islamic art in the early 1900s. An Armenian from Kayseri in Turkey, a town mostly famous for its production of rugs and as an antique-dealing centre at the turn of the century, Minassian later moved to Europe and settled in Paris. Some of his pieces were exhibited in the famous Munich exhibition of Islamic art in 1910 (Sarre and Martin, Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst, 1912) and although based in Paris, he also opened a gallery on 57th Street in New York in 1916. Though the Minassian family closed its New York gallery in 1923, Kirkor Minassian remained an active dealer in the New York art market until the end of the decade. The introduction of the catalogue of an auction of pieces from the collection of Kirkor Minassian "of New York and Paris" held at The Anderson Galleries on 6 April 1925 notes "Mr. Kirkor Minassian came to New York from Paris in 1916. He had long been a familiar figure in Paris. Connoisseurs there knew his apartment as a place in which to discover rare and beautiful objects from the Orient [..]. It was not long before the New York public learned to know Mr. Minassian and his Fifty-seventh Street shop with its rare archaeological objects, its textiles, its potteries, its beautiful miniatures. But suddenly, two years ago, the doors of the shop were closed. Kirkor Minassian had stood the West as long as he could. As had happened so often during his sojourn in Paris, he had gone off to the Orient". Minassian had travelled to the Near East numerous times and reports, in the introduction of his auction catalogue: "I want to be free to go where I will. I am growing old. I want to be with my family in Paris. One more trip to the East, a few months each year in New York; for the rest, I want my peace". In the text accompanying his Loan Exhibition of Near Eastern Art at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut, it is noted that Minassian was "the first modern traveller to visit this inaccessible Caucasian town [Kubachi] in 1904". Following his travels, the improper appellation of "Kubachi" or "Kubacha" was attached to the type of ceramic pieces now known as Kubachi ware of which a rich selection is offered in this sale. Thought to have been produced in this Caucasian town, these blue and white and polychrome dishes with their typical crackled glaze and decoration inspired by their Chinese or Ottoman Iznik contemporaries were certainly made in north-west Iran, probably in Tabriz. Kirkor Minassian was part of a group of prominent collectors and dealers of Armenian origin such as Hagop Kevorkian or Dickran Kelekian who had emigrated to New York in the early 20th century and are now regarded as major figures in the field of Islamic art. Adrienne Minassian continued her father's legacy as a premier collector and dealer of Islamic antiquities for the latter half of the twentieth century. Ms. Minassian was one of the few dealers of Islamic art in America and her personal collection also followed the form of her father's: manuscripts, miniature paintings, and ceramics were her major areas of interest. Brown University was very fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of her extensive family art collection and of many of the articles in her gallery at the time of her death.

A LARGE "POST-SASANIAN" BLUE-GLAZED POTTERY STORAGE JAR

IRAN, 8TH/10TH CENTURY

Details

A LARGE "POST-SASANIAN" BLUE-GLAZED POTTERY STORAGE JAR
IRAN, 8TH/10TH CENTURY
Of baluster form on short foot, with tapering neck and rounded lip, the four handles joining the upper neck to the shoulder, the applied decoration with wavy bands and rosettes, chips, otherwise intact
19in. (48.4cm.) high

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Lot Essay

It is very rare that a large vessel such as the present vase survives intact and preserves its original turquoise-blue glaze. This type of large storage jars is usually attributed to 8th-10th century Iran or sometimes earlier, dated 7th/8th century and labelled "post-Sasanian". They share the same characteristics: a baluster form, a tapering neck rising to a rim with rounded lips and a simple decoration consisting of applied bands forming wavy motifs. A closely related example is published in Oliver Watson, Ceramics of the Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.160.

Another jar with similarly applied decoration was offered at Christie's, 31 Mar 2009, lot 66.

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