IRAN, EARLY 13TH CENTURY

A distinctive feature of Islamic pottery is the way in which pots were arranged in the kiln. When firing glazed ware, it was imperative that the vessels not come into contact with one another or they would fuse. Consequently, long bars were driven into the walls of kilns to create shelves, so that large numbers of vessels could be fired in a single kiln (Oliver Watson, Ceramics of Iran, London, 2020, p.17). The gaps between the bars, however, would allow pigment to drip onto the vessel below: particularly susceptible to this was the copper oxide pigment used for turquoise vessels. The blue marks on this dish suggests that lustre vessels would have been fired alongside other types of ceramic such as turquoise ware, giving a sense of the complicated and bustling atmosphere of a thirteenth century Iranian ceramic workshop, where many different techniques were being practiced simultaneously.