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Lot Essay
Inscription:
In the centre, 'Ahmad'; around the wall a saying to Imam 'Ali and part of a word man ayqan bi'l-khalaf jada bi'l-'atiyya bar[aka?], 'He who believes in what follows excels in generosity. Blessing(?)'
Bowls of this type were often painted with aphorisms or exhortations around the cavetto, frequently with the single enigmatic word ‘Ahmad’ in the middle. Abdullah Ghouchani maintains that it was the name of an individual potter (Katabaha-yi sufal-i Nishabur / Inscriptions on Nishapur Pottery, Tehran, 1986). The amount of pottery with the word on it, in all manner of calligraphic styles, may suggest ‘Ahmad’ was a workshop rather than an individual. Others have suggested that it may not be a name at all. Charles K. Wilkinson suggests that it may be an elative form of the Arabic verb hamada, meaning ‘the most laudable’ or ‘may he do that which is laudable’ (Nishapur: Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1973).
Other ceramics with ‘Ahmad’ in the middle are in the al-Sabah collection (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.213, Cat. Ga.9), the British Museum (acc.no.1948,1009.1), and Museum of Applied Arts, Hamburg (acc.no. 1956.96). An example with an inscription which is also in a very similar script, which Ernst Grube describes as ‘particularly elegant and controlled’, is in the Khalili Collection (Ernst J. Grube, “The Pottery of Khurasan”, Cobalt and Lustre: the First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, p.98, cat.no.95).
In the centre, 'Ahmad'; around the wall a saying to Imam 'Ali and part of a word man ayqan bi'l-khalaf jada bi'l-'atiyya bar[aka?], 'He who believes in what follows excels in generosity. Blessing(?)'
Bowls of this type were often painted with aphorisms or exhortations around the cavetto, frequently with the single enigmatic word ‘Ahmad’ in the middle. Abdullah Ghouchani maintains that it was the name of an individual potter (Katabaha-yi sufal-i Nishabur / Inscriptions on Nishapur Pottery, Tehran, 1986). The amount of pottery with the word on it, in all manner of calligraphic styles, may suggest ‘Ahmad’ was a workshop rather than an individual. Others have suggested that it may not be a name at all. Charles K. Wilkinson suggests that it may be an elative form of the Arabic verb hamada, meaning ‘the most laudable’ or ‘may he do that which is laudable’ (Nishapur: Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1973).
Other ceramics with ‘Ahmad’ in the middle are in the al-Sabah collection (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p.213, Cat. Ga.9), the British Museum (acc.no.1948,1009.1), and Museum of Applied Arts, Hamburg (acc.no. 1956.96). An example with an inscription which is also in a very similar script, which Ernst Grube describes as ‘particularly elegant and controlled’, is in the Khalili Collection (Ernst J. Grube, “The Pottery of Khurasan”, Cobalt and Lustre: the First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, p.98, cat.no.95).