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Lot Essay
These powerful dishes, with their floriated kufic designs and central interlocking strapwork and arabesque motifs, are typical of what Julian Raby has referred to as amongst ‘the most majestic achievements of the Islamic potter’ (Julian Raby, ‘Looking for Silver in Clay: A New Perspective on Samanid Ceramics’ in Michael Vickers (ed.), Pots and Pans. A Colloquium on Precious Metals and Ceramics, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art, III, Oxford, 1986, p.184). Samanid potters can be credited with the invention and perfection of slip-painted pottery – in which clarity of design was achieved by painting brownish pigment mixed with slip on a white engobe which is painted over the red earthenware.
A small bowl which is decorated with a similar elegant strapwork issuing palmettes is in the Al-Sabah Collection (cat.Gb.1; Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.220). Other examples, attributed to 10th century Samarqand are published in Terres secretes de Samarcande. Ceramiques du VIII au XIII siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1992, nos.154 and 162, pp. 94-96.
For further discussion on Samanid ceramics, and their derivations from metalwork, please see lot 21.
A small bowl which is decorated with a similar elegant strapwork issuing palmettes is in the Al-Sabah Collection (cat.Gb.1; Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.220). Other examples, attributed to 10th century Samarqand are published in Terres secretes de Samarcande. Ceramiques du VIII au XIII siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1992, nos.154 and 162, pp. 94-96.
For further discussion on Samanid ceramics, and their derivations from metalwork, please see lot 21.