.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The powerful and impressively large dish offered here, with its ‘new style’ kufic inscription intensely focused against an immaculate white ground, is typical of what Julian Raby has referred to as amongst "the most majestic achievements of the Islamic potter" (Raby, 1986, p.184). As early as 1944, Lane described the group in these terms: "Their beauty is of the highest intellectual order; they hold the essence of Islam undiluted" (Lane, 1946, p.18). More recently, Robert Hillenbrand discusses their "minimalistic aesthetics" and their "beauty [that] resides in the reduction to the essential" (Hillenbrand, 2015, p.61).
The calligraphy of our dish strongly recalls that found on Qur'ans copied in 'eastern' Kufic where the playful use of elongations (mashq) contrasts with the elongated curving upstrokes. Raby writes of the aesthetic of dark calligraphy against a stark white ground which is equally reminiscent of niello-inlaid engraving and characterises much of early Islamic epigraphic silver (Raby, 1986, pp.186-87). One area in which the inscriptions on pottery differ dramatically from those on metal or paper however is in their content. Whilst inscriptions on metal objects are largely dedicatory or benedictory, the inscriptions on Samanid ceramics usually contain aphorisms, perhaps because they were less likely to be produced as special commissions, but more for general appeal. Many of the inscriptions allude to faith, generosity and noble qualities, often in a context of food or eating – something Oliver Watson suggests indicates their use as tableware, not just as decorative pieces (Watson, 2004, p.206).
In his discussion of the dishes, Raby convincingly argues that Samanid epigraphic pottery owes its distinctive shapes and decorative repertoire to local silversmithing traditions. He suggests that an increased pottery production may have been a response to a decline in silversmithing, due to a rise in the value of silver. Certainly the distinctive pottery of the Samanid period owes very little to an existing ceramic production. The shape of Samanid pottery, with its sharp angles and skilfully potted thin straight walls is unlike other Islamic pottery of the period but can be found be metal prototypes: compare for instance a dish offered at Christie's, London, 23 April 2015, lot 10 with a silver salver, found at Izgirli in Bulgaria but held to be Islamic, probably from 11th century Khorassan (Raby, op.cit., in Vickers,1986, fig.21, p.193).
Please refer to lot 7 for a note on the techniques used to create Samanid ware ceramics. Examples of epigraphic Samanid dishes recently sold in these rooms include 25 October 2018, lots 44 and 46.
The calligraphy of our dish strongly recalls that found on Qur'ans copied in 'eastern' Kufic where the playful use of elongations (mashq) contrasts with the elongated curving upstrokes. Raby writes of the aesthetic of dark calligraphy against a stark white ground which is equally reminiscent of niello-inlaid engraving and characterises much of early Islamic epigraphic silver (Raby, 1986, pp.186-87). One area in which the inscriptions on pottery differ dramatically from those on metal or paper however is in their content. Whilst inscriptions on metal objects are largely dedicatory or benedictory, the inscriptions on Samanid ceramics usually contain aphorisms, perhaps because they were less likely to be produced as special commissions, but more for general appeal. Many of the inscriptions allude to faith, generosity and noble qualities, often in a context of food or eating – something Oliver Watson suggests indicates their use as tableware, not just as decorative pieces (Watson, 2004, p.206).
In his discussion of the dishes, Raby convincingly argues that Samanid epigraphic pottery owes its distinctive shapes and decorative repertoire to local silversmithing traditions. He suggests that an increased pottery production may have been a response to a decline in silversmithing, due to a rise in the value of silver. Certainly the distinctive pottery of the Samanid period owes very little to an existing ceramic production. The shape of Samanid pottery, with its sharp angles and skilfully potted thin straight walls is unlike other Islamic pottery of the period but can be found be metal prototypes: compare for instance a dish offered at Christie's, London, 23 April 2015, lot 10 with a silver salver, found at Izgirli in Bulgaria but held to be Islamic, probably from 11th century Khorassan (Raby, op.cit., in Vickers,1986, fig.21, p.193).
Please refer to lot 7 for a note on the techniques used to create Samanid ware ceramics. Examples of epigraphic Samanid dishes recently sold in these rooms include 25 October 2018, lots 44 and 46.